Development of the Dominican Republic National Monitoring and Surveillance Program for Pesticide Residues in Primary Foods
"Plan Nacional de Monitoreo y Vigilancia de Residuos de Plaguicidas en Alimentos Primarios en la República Dominicana"
Program Description
The Dominican Republic is known for fruit and vegetables production. While fruit and vegetable exports contribute significantly the DR GDP, these products are consumed widely throughout the country. Robust national surveillance and monitoring plans are necessary to both build confidence in international markets and ensure the safety of foods consumed domestically. Toward this end, Purdue, Improving Economies for Sustainable Communities (NGO partner), and the Dominican Republic Department of Food Safety worked together to develop and implement the surveillance and monitoring plan for the detection of pesticide residues in primary foods (equivalent: FDA Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program: https://www.fda.gov/food/pesticides/pesticide-residue-monitoring-program-reports-and-data). These efforts included the development of a comprehensive, risk-based sampling plan that maximizes available resources, training of samplers in internationally accepted sampling techniques, working with laboratories to develop testing protocols, and data management. The plan is currently being implemented and the Department of Food Safety is taking a similar approach to create surveillance and monitoring systems for other products, including dairy, animal feed, and eggs.
Outcomes
A national system for surveillance and monitoring of pesticide residues in primary foods is currently being implemented.
