§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of poultry in the United Kingdom were slaughtered before the end of the medication withdrawal period for(a) nicarbazin, (b) lasalocid and (c) dimetridazole in (i) 1998, (ii) 1999, (iii) 2000, (iv) 2001 and (v) November and December of (i), (ii) and (iii). [16972]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 23 November 2001]: DEFRA do not collect these statistics.
§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what the permitted concentrations of(a) nicarbazin, (b) lasalocid and (c) dimetridazole residues in poultry are which were deemed safe for human consumption in the United Kingdom (i) 1998, (ii) 1999, (iii) 2000 and (iv) 2001; [16973]
(2) how many poultry samples by category were and what proportion of slaughtered poultry was found to contain residues of (a) nicarbazin, (b) lasalocid and (c) dimetridazole above the level deemed suitable for human consumption in the United Kingdom in (i) 1998, (i) 1999, (iii) 2000 and (iv) 2001. [16974]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 23 November 2001]: The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for nicarbazin of 0–400. µg/kg of body weight—24,000 µg for a person weighing 60 kg. This represents the amount of nicarbazin that could be consumed every day over a lifetime without harm to human health. A single exposure over this amount would be unlikely to be harmful.
Lasalocid has an ADI of 10 µg/kg of body weight, 600 µg for a person weighing 60 kg. Again, a single exposure over this amount would be unlikely to be harmful.
Dimetridazole is not permitted for use in food producing animals. The advice of toxicologists is that it is not possible to identify a "safe" residue concentration.
Poultry are sampled as part of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate's (VMD's) Statutory National Surveillance Scheme, in accordance with the requirements of EC Directive 96/23. The sample numbers tested for nicarbazin, lasalocid and dimetridazole over the period are given in the table.
No samples of poultry have been found to contain residues of dimetridazole in the period. Residues of nicarbazin and lasalocid have been found in samples of UK poultry, but toxicologists' advice has confirmed that none posed a risk to consumer safety. The presence of nicarbazin in poultry products is a food contaminant issue, rather than a food safety issue.
The results for 1998–2000 were fully reported in the relevant Annual Report on Surveillance for Veterinary Medicine Residues.
855W
Number of samples of different types of poultry tested for residues of veterinary medicines Residue/poultry sampled 1998 1999 2000 20011 Nicarbazin Broiler liver 229 192 186 210 Hen liver 23 23 19 20 Turkey liver 59 55 55 40 Duck liver 11 11 11 5 Lasalocid Broiler liver 236 176 197 210 Hen liver 26 24 21 20 Turkey liver 58 52 50 40 Duck liver 13 13 12 5 Dimetridazole Broiler liver 706 1,315 1,082 1,233 Hen liver 39 70 50 56 Turkey liver 155 265 205 234 Duck liver 16 32 26 55 1 The 2001 figures are the number of samples that are planned to have been collected by the end of the year's programme