Limit values
Plant protection products are among the best studied and most strictly regulated chemical substances in the world. Strict limit values must be observed for food and groundwater. The upper limit for residues of plant protection products for groundwater is 0.1 micrograms per liter - i.e. one millionth of a gram per liter. However, not only the active ingredients of pesticides, but also their degradation products are subject to strict limit values.
A distinction is made between «relevant» and «non-relevant» degradation products - so-called metabolites. «Relevant» degradation products can have negative effects on humans and the environment. It is therefore scientifically recognised that stricter limit values apply to them than to «non-relevant» metabolites. Limit values determine how large the amount of active ingredient residues of plant protection products and their degradation products may be, for example in groundwater.
Terms from the glossary
- Abiotic / Biotic Stress
- Agroecology
- Analytics
- Bees
- Bio-dynamic agriculture
- Biocides
- Biodiversity
- Biologicals
- Biotechnology
- Carcinogenic
- Causality
- Chemophobia
- Cisgenic Plants
- Climate change
- Conventional agriculture
- Correlation
- CRISPR/Cas9
- Digital Agriculture
- Flower strips
- Food Loss
- Food security
- Food Waste
- Gene editing
- Genetic engineering
- Hazard
- Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHP)
- Insect deaths
- Integrated Pest Management
- Limit values
- Metabolites
- Molecular Pharming
- Mutation breeding
- Organic farming
- Organic pesticides
- Pesticide
- Plant breeding
- Plant protection products
- Poison cocktail
- Population growth
- Precautionary principle
- Precision Fermentation
- Regenerative agriculture
- Resilience in the food system
- Resource efficiency
- Risk
- Rural exodus
- Seed treatment, seed dressing
- Species diversity
- Sustainability
- Synthetic pesticides
- Taxonomy
- The Green Revolution
- Transgenic plants
- Urban Farming
- Water scarcity
- Weeds