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Maximum Residue Level

Regulatory

The maximum legally permitted level of a pesticide residue in or on food and animal feed in the EU.

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Sources

  1. EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 (maximum residue levels of pesticides) eur-lex.europa.eu accessed 22 September 2026

Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 defines an MRL as “the upper legal level of a concentration for a pesticide residue in or on food or feed set in accordance with this Regulation, based on good agricultural practice and the lowest consumer exposure necessary to protect vulnerable consumers”. Where no specific MRL has been set for a product, Article 18(1)(b) applies a default of 0.01 mg/kg, subject to listed exceptions. That default is the practical trap for exporters: a pesticide legal at home with no EU-specific limit is held to the default, which is effectively the level of detection.

Quoted from the act itself on EUR-Lex. How it applies to exporters, above, is this lexicon’s summary.

Related terms

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).

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