Soybean Blunder

Regulatory officials have been rapped on the knuckles by Taiwanese legislator Lin Shu-fen for an oversight in the regulation of glyphosate residues in soybeans, according to the Taipei Times (1).

Lin noted that, “Taiwan has a maximum residue limit (MRL) for glyphosate of 10 parts per million (ppm), which is lower than that of the US, Japan and the Codex Alimentarius at 20ppm.” So far, so good. “However, the problem,” Lin continued, “is that what we have been using for testing is the ‘multi-residue analysis,’ which analyzes the residue levels of 251 pesticides at one time, and glyphosate is not one of them.”

Regulatory officials have been rapped on the knuckles by Taiwanese legislator Lin Shu-fen for an oversight in the regulation of glyphosate residues in soybeans, according to the Taipei Times (1).

Lin noted that, “Taiwan has a maximum residue limit (MRL) for glyphosate of 10 parts per million (ppm), which is lower than that of the US, Japan and the Codex Alimentarius at 20ppm.” So far, so good. “However, the problem,” Lin continued, “is that what we have been using for testing is the ‘multi-residue analysis,’ which analyzes the residue levels of 251 pesticides at one time, and glyphosate is not one of them.” Given that Taiwan imports some 2.4 million tonnes of the legumes – 99.95 percent of all soybeans used – this is no small oversight.

Glyphosate is one of the world’s most commonly-used broad-spectrum herbicides. In terms of safety, according to an US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) factsheet, it poses little threat: “EPA conducted a dietary risk assessment for glyphosate based on a worst-case risk scenario, that is, assuming that 100 percent of all possible commodities/acreage were treated, and assuming that tolerance-level residues remained in/on all treated commodities,” and concluded that the chronic dietary risk was minimal (2). Unfortunately, the safety of glyphosate at the MRL becomes irrelevant when it is not being monitored at all.

Following Lin’s accusation, Wu Hsiu-ying, deputy chief of Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Tsai Shu-jen, chief of the FDA’s food division, promised that imported soybeans would be tested for glyphosate residues with immediate effect (3).

Back on track then. But are there any other impressive residue-limits that are applied without adequate analyses to back them up? That’s an interesting question.