Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his question on this issue. I can inform the Senate that food safety and setting health limits for imported food falls within the responsibility of, as he has identified, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, FSANZ. Further, it is the role of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to approve and register the use of particular chemicals in Australia. The APVMA is reviewing carbendazim and in the interim has suspended use on a number of crops including all citrus fruit. As a result of the suspension of carbendazim use the APVMA is currently considering removal of a number of maximum residue limits for carbendazim from the Food Standards Code, including that for orange juice, so that effectively a zero MRL will apply. I am also informed that at present no decision has been made by the APVMA on this matter or on a change to the MRL—that is, while FSANZ conducts a risk assessment for imported products and engages with industry it is important to have industry consultation.

At present Australia does not have a maximum residue limit in place but allows the presence of carbendazim in citrus products at 10 parts per million. The advice of FSANZ is that a 70-kilo adult would need to drink about 140 litres of orange juice in one day to consume an unsafe amount of orange juice with carbendazim present at this level and a child would need to drink about 40 litres in one day. However, the APVMA suspended the use of carbendazim on a range of crops, including oranges, in 2010. This was following a review in 2007 and was focused on the use of the chemical— (Time expired)