Veterinary drugs in food: few violations

Compliance with legal limits for veterinary drugs in food remains high. This is evident from the annual report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the presence of pharmacologically active substances and their residues in food of animal origin. In 2023, only 0.11% of the tested samples were found to be non-compliant. Out of 548,194 analyzed samples, 602 did not meet the established standards.

New classification in control plans

This is the first report to present the division of samples according to three revised control plans:

• The national risk-based control plan for production within the EU recorded a non-compliance rate of 0.15%.
• The national randomized surveillance plan showed a slightly higher non-compliance rate of 0.29%.
• The national risk-based control plan for imports from third countries reported 0.23% non-compliance.

Supporting risk management

The findings help the European Commission and national authorities assess the effectiveness of control plans. Based on these insights, measures can be refined to further improve compliance and reduce the presence of undesirable substances in the food chain.

Efsa.europa.eu