Pesticide residues analysis witnesses boom

CAIRO - 5 March 2019: Samples of agricultural exports extracted monthly for pesticide residues analysis have increased to 10,000 - 11,000 to ensure that Egyptian products match the criteria of importing countries.

Director of the Central Laboratory for Pesticide Residues Analysis Ashraf al-Marsafy told Egypt Today that the rise is due to the increase in the number of devices used to carry out the analysis using Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method.

The value of each of those devices, which give more accurate results, take less time and reduce process costs, is LE 10,000. Some of those are supplied by the Ministry of Military Production.

In January 2018, the target was 2,193 samples of fruits and vegetables per annum. The number includes agricultural products meant to be exported or consumed locally.