Comparison of cumulative dietary exposure to pesticide residues for the reference periods 2014–2016 and 2016–2018

Retrospective dietary exposure assessments were conducted for pesticides that have chronic effects on the thyroid and pesticides that have acute effects on the nervous system. Exposure assessments were performed using monitoring data collected by Member States under their official pesticide monitoring programmes in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Exposure estimates were obtained for 10 populations of consumers (i.e. from different countries and from different age groups) by means of a two‐dimensional probabilistic model. Results were compared to those previously obtained for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, and exposure did not change significantly over time. However, an increase of the sampling uncertainty was identified for one pesticide in a specific food commodity. Strategies are therefore recommended to reduce the sampling uncertainty and to anticipate potential problems before initiating a cumulative risk assessment.