Commission Regulation (EU) No 544/2011 (repealed)Show full title

6.3. Residue trials

Aim of the tests

The objectives of these studies are:

• to quantify the highest likely residue levels in treated crops at harvest or outloading from store following the proposed good agricultural practice (GAP), and

• to determine, when appropriate, the rate of decline of plant protection product deposits.

Circumstances in which required

These studies must always be performed where the plant protection product will be applied to plants/plant products which are used as food or feeding stuffs or where residues from soil or other substrates can be taken up by such plants except where extrapolation from adequate data on another crop is possible.

Residue trial data shall be submitted in the dossier for those uses of plant protection products for which authorisation is sought at the moment of the submission of a dossier for approval of the active substance.

Test conditions

Supervised trials shall correspond to proposed critical GAP. The test conditions must take into account the highest residues which may reasonably arise (e.g. maximum number of proposed applications, use of the maximum envisaged quantity, shortest pre-harvest intervals, withholding periods or storage periods) but which remain representative of the realistic worst case conditions in which the active substance would be used.

Sufficient data must be generated and submitted to confirm that patterns determined hold for the regions and the range of conditions, likely to be encountered in the regions concerned for which its use is to be recommended.

When establishing a supervised trial programme, normally factors such as climatic differences existing between production areas, differences in production methods (e.g. outdoor versus glasshouse uses), seasons of production, type of formulations, etc. shall be taken into account.

In general, for a comparable set of conditions, trials shall be carried out over a minimum of two growing seasons. All exceptions shall be fully justified.

The precise number of trials necessary is difficult to determine in advance of a preliminary evaluation of the trial results. Minimum data requirements only apply where comparability can be established between production areas, e.g. concerning climate, methods and growing seasons of production, etc. Assuming all other variables (climate, etc.) are comparable, a minimum of eight trials representative of the proposed growing area is required for major crops. For minor crops normally four trials representative of the proposed growing area are required.

Due to the inherently higher level of homogeneity in residues arising from post-harvest treatments or protected crops, trials from one growing season will be acceptable. For post-harvest treatments, in principle a minimum of four trials are required, carried out preferably at different locations with different cultivars. A set of trials has to be carried out for each application method and store type unless the worst case residue situation can be clearly identified.

The number of studies per growing season to be performed can be reduced if it can be justified that the residue levels in plants/plant products will be lower than the limit of determination.

Where a significant part of the consumable crop is present at the time of application, half of the supervised residue trials reported shall include data to show the effect of time on the level of residue present (residue decline studies) unless it can be justified that the consumable crop is not affected by the application of the plant protection product under the proposed conditions of use.