Pesticide residues in food and drinking water from the consumerʼs perspective: The relevance of maximum residue levels and product-specific differences

Abstract

One disadvantage of pesticide use in agriculture are the residues that remain in food and drinking water. In addition to analyzing consumer intolerance to pesticide residues for various food groups (fruit/vegetables, cereals/cereal products, and potatoes) according to the degree of product processing, the present study investigates consumer knowledge and attitudes regarding the EU's regulations on maximum residue levels (comparatively) for both food and drinking water. A survey of 1,195 German consumers was conducted by means of an online questionnaire. Different statistical analysis methods were used for the data analysis. The results show that EU regulations on maximum residue levels were known to 62.7% of respondents regarding food, and to 60.9% of the respondents regarding drinking water. Both pesticide residues in general and those exceeding the maximum residue levels were considered rather problematic. There was an ambivalent attitude towards the maximum residue levels. The attitudinal differences between food and drinking water were small to marginal. The analyses of pesticide residue intolerance with respect to degree of food processing showed that the highest intolerance was found with unprocessed/minimally processed products, followed by food products with higher processing degrees. Overall, these findings underline the consumer-sided general importance of the residue issue and argue for more sustainable agricultural systems characterized by pesticide use reduction or avoidance.