Report for 2008 on the results from the monitoring of veterinary medicinal product residues and other substances in food of animal origin in the Member States

In the framework of article 31 of Regulation EC 178/2002, the European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority for assistance in preparing an annual technical report on the results of residue monitoring in food of animal origin in the European Union. The present report summarises the monitoring data available from 2008 in the 27 Member States. Altogether, there were 752 902 samples (707 058 targeted and 45 844 suspect) reported under Directive 96/23/EC to the Commission in 2008. There were 1 923 non-compliant results in the 707 058 targeted samples (0.27 %). By substance group, the distribution of non-compliant results in targeted sampling (for samples analysed for the respective group) was as follows: contaminants (0.87 %), other veterinary medicinal products (0.42 %), antibacterials (0.29 %), hormones (0.26 %), prohibited substances (0.07 %), and beta-agonists (0.005 %). The distribution of non-compliant results, by substance group, as a percent of the total non-compliant results, in bovines, pigs, sheep and goats, horses, and poultry taken together followed the pattern: antibacterials > hormones > other veterinary medicinal products > contaminants > prohibited substances > beta-agonists (46 %, 19 %, 18 %, 14 %, 2.3 %, and 0.1 %). The frequency of non-compliant results was similar to previous years for most regulated veterinary medicinal products. The distribution of non-compliant results by species, as a percent of the total non-compliant results, in targeted samples followed the pattern: pigs > bovines > poultry > sheep and goats > horses (39 %, 31 %, 17 %, 9 %, and 3 %) which corresponded to the pattern of the total samples taken for analysis in 2008 for the individual animal groups.