Summary Report on 2022 Residue Monitoring of Irish Farmed Fish & 2022 Border Inspection Post Fishery Product Testing of Samples Received into the Marine Institute

Abstract

On behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM), the Marine Institute carries out monitoring of chemical residues in finfish for aquaculture sector. This monitoring is set out in the annual National Residue Control Plan, which is approved by the European Commission, and is an important component of the DAFM food safety controls and is implemented under a service contract with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Since 1999, the Marine Institute has implemented the National Residues Monitoring Programme for aquaculture. This is carried out on behalf of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, which is the responsible organisation for residue controls on farmed finfish. In 2022, in excess of 803 tests and a total of 8,263 measurements were carried out on 138 samples of farmed finfish for a range of residues. Implementation of the Aquaculture 2022 Plan involves taking samples at both farm and processing plant: 92 target samples taken at harvest: 82 farmed salmon and 10 freshwater trout. 46 target samples were taken at other stages of production: 36s salmon smolts and 10 freshwater trout. All 2022 samples were compliant. For target sampling of farmed fish, a summary table of the residue results from 2005 - 2022 is outlined in Table 1. Overall, the outcome for aquaculture remains one of consistently low occurrence of residues in farmed finfish, with no non-compliant target residues results for the period 2006-2014, 0.11% and 0.10% non-compliant target residues results in 2015 and 2016 respectively and no non-compliant target results for the period 2017 to 2022.