Japan MRLs

Japan MRLs are established by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) in consultation with the Food Safety Committee (FSC) under auspices of the Food Sanitation Law. Until recently, specific with-holding limits (WHLs) were set under the Agricultural Chemical Control Law to govern residue limits associated with 

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TheFood Sanitary Law in Japan, which is regulated by theMinistry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), has established maximum residue limits (MRLs) and monitors the residue levels in food commodities in the market, including both domestic and... 

When MRLs are set under Japanese law, the Japanese authorities will consider the Codex MRLs for international harmonization. However, Japan has set original food consumption amounts and GAPs. In this respect, the Japanese regulatory agency retains the rights to establish original values for the MRLs for each commodity based on toxicological exposure assessment. 

In Japan, bifenox is the only registered diphenyl ether herbicide. The tolerance and/or maximum residue limits (MRLs) are established at 0.1 mg kg for cereals such as rice grain, barley and wheat, and 0.05mgkg for potatoes (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan). Ibe California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) established the minimum detectable quantity of diphenyl ether herbicides at 0.1 mgkg for bifenox, nitrofen and oxyfluorfen. ... 

Chronic Oral MRL for Methylmercury Hair levels are typically used as an index of exposure to methymercury. A number of studies report that hair mercury levels correlate with total intake levels and with organ-specific levels of mercury. Suzuki et al. (1993) analyzed 46 human autopsies in Tokyo, Japan and reported that hair mercury levels were highly significantly correlated with organ Hg levels in the cerebrum, cerebellum, heart, spleen, liver, kidney cortex, and kidney medulla, when the total mercury or methyl mercury value in the organ was compared with the hair total mercury or organic mercury, respectively. 

Using the informahon from Table III, if the peshcide chlorpyrifos is appHed to apples according to good agricultural practices in Chile and the residues at harvest are less than the Codex MRL of 1 mg/kg, then the apples would be acceptable for the domestic market and for the markets in Japan and the US, where the MRLs are at the same level or higher. However, the same apples would not be accepted in Europe, nor would they be accepted by the retailers in the UK since their respective MRLs would be exceeded. 

In Japan, the Positive List system was implemented on May 29, 2006. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare had established many provisional maximum residue limits (MRLs) in addition to present MRLs, and 586 pesticides were regulated under the Food Sanitation Law [1]. A uniform level of 0.01 ppm is established as the level having no potential to cause damage to human health [2], A rapid and sensitive multiresidue analytical method was required to conduct efficient and effective monitoring surveys of pesticide residues to ensure food safety. 

Y. Yamada (MAFF, Japan) reviewed the policies and processes of establishing Codex MRLs in food by the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, or CCPR. 

Japan positive MRL system Regulatory and trade considerations ... 

S. Miyagawa (MHLW, Japan) explained the background and implementation experience for the new system of food safety regulation, which came into force on May 29, 2006, for some 745 pesticides on both domestic and imported foods. He reported that the first several months of implementation of the positive list resulted in an increase in violations, which came from a trade standard issue. Then, the lecturers from China, USA, and Australia discussed implementation issues and future needs related to agricultural practices and compliance with the new positive MRL system of Japan on the part of farmers and exporters. 

W. L. Chen (China Agric. Univ., China) stressed the importance of education and stewardship on the part of farmers in China and other Asian nations in achieving a high level of compliance for foods exported to Japan. H. W. Ewart (California Citrus Quality Council, USA) emphasized the difhculties faced by growers and exporters in complying with disharmonized MRL standards of various trading... 

We introduced the LC analysis for residual penicillin antibiotics in food, especially in bovine tissues. To avoid the use of special instruments and toxic reagents, the combination of ion-exchange cartridge cleanup and ion-pair HPLC was very effective and was able to provide sufficient sensitivity and quantitation for the measurement of penicillins. Moreover, it was also able to be used for the development of the confirmation method using ESI LC/ MS. The detection limits of all of these methods are able to satisfy the MRLs established by the WHO, FDA, EU, and Japan so we strongly recommend these methods for the... 

Kato, T., Kurihara, K., Seko, H., Saito, K., Kazuo, and Goda, H. (1998). Verification of the MRl-nonhydrostatic-model predicted rainfall during the 1996 Baiu season, J. Meteor. Soc. Japan 76,719-735. 

At present, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan has set the MRL of 229 pesticides in foods and plans a further increase of the number by more than 400 in a few years. The ministry is going to introduce a positive list system in which pesticides having no MRLs should be treated as the illegal substance if detected in foods. According to increasing the pesticides listed for MRLs, their physicochemical properties should expand widely. Therefore multiresidue method (MRMs) are required to cover considerably wider range of polarity. 

In Japan, although detection of pesticide residues with no MRLs is not violationve now. Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare will adopt a Positive List with MRLs for the combination of 400 pesticides and all agricultural products. The new legislation will be fully implemented in 2006. 

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