Veterinary drugs residues in foods

Ryan, J.J. and H.A. McLeod. 1979. Chemical methods for the analysis of veterinary drug residues in foods. Part I. Residue Rev. 71 1-82. 

World Health Organization, in Evaluation of Certain Veterinary Drug Residues in Food. Thirty-eighth Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, Technical Report Series 815, World Health Organization, Geneva (1991). 

Development of standards, guidelines, and recommendations for veterinary drug residues in food has been delegated by CAC to its subsidiary body, the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CCRVDF), which is more routinely involved in risk management. The work of this subcommittee is mainly supported by tire Joint FAOAVHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). 

JECFA is a scientific advisory body established in tire 1950s, prior to the establishment of the CAC. Over the past 40 years, it has provided independent scientific advice to all FAO and WHO member countries. The traditional and current activities of JECFA are mainly in the area of risk assessment, not risk management. To some extent, however, JECFA activities also touch on risk management. Risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication constitute the three basic elements of risk analysis that are taken into account in the Codex procedure for setting MRLs of veterinary drug residues in foods (Table 11.1). 

Between May, 1986, and December, 1990, over 35,000 analyses were conducted in the United Kingdom for surveillance for veterinary drug residues in food. The results drawn from these analyses allow the incidence and concentrations of drug residues in the national food supply to be assessed (29). Although a very large number of samples were analyzed, a rather small number of samples were found to contain violative residues that mainly concerned sulfonamides in swine, and oxolinic acid and oxytetracycline in farmed fish. However, the incidence of sulfonamide residues in a range of swine tissues from home-produced and imported sources showed a significant decline over the period 1986-1990 (Table 13.21). 

MD Rose, J Bygrave, WH Farrington, G Shearer. The effect of cooking on veterinary drug residues in food. 4. Oxytetracycline. Food Additiv Contain 13 275-286, 1996. 

The sources of veterinary drug residues in food are clearly more limited in variety than those of pesticides. However, little attention seems to have been given to possible contamination of the environment and hence food by animal waste products containing residues of veterinary drugs. Residues of drugs and their metabolites in faeces could, in theory at least, lead to contamination of soil and hence crops following muck spreading. 

In other nations similar bodies exist for the surveillance of veterinary drug residues in food. Any country that is not a member of the EU, wishing to export meat or animal products into the EU, must have a residues surveillance programme that is compatable with EU legislation. 

Potential effects on human health of veterinary drug residues in food... 

Council Regulation 315/93 lays down Community procedures for establishing maximum limits for contaminants (other than pesticide and veterinary drug residues) in food. The Scientific Committee for Food must be consulted on all questions which may have an effect on public health and this committee carries out the toxicological evaluations which underpin the limits set for contaminants. The scientific data which form the basis of the evaluations are obtained mainly from the scientific literature and from the Member States. Data on human exposure to contaminants, such as nitrates, cadmium, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, have been collected and collated in projects in the programme on scientific co-operation between the Member States (known as SCOOP). 

Considering methods of sampling and analysis for the determination of veterinary drug residues in foods. 

MacNeil, J.D. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee 106. on Food Additives and its role in the evaluation of the safety of veterinary drug residues in foods. AAPS 107. 

Joint FAO/WHO Expert-Committee on Food Additives. Evaluation of Certain Veterinary Drug Residues in Food. 

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