Food in the European Union (EU) continues to be largely free of pesticide residues or contains residues that fall within legal limits, the European Food Security Authority (EFSA) revealed Tuesday in new report.

According to a 2015 EU report on pesticide residues in food, 69.3 percent of the samples came from EU member states, while 25.8 percent were imported from countries outside the EU. The origin of the remaining samples was not reported.

The report showed that 97.2 percent of the samples analysed fell within the limits permitted in EU legislation. Among them, 53.3 percent of the samples tested were free of quantifiable residues while 43.9 percent contained residues that didn't exceed legal limits.

However, in 2015, 1.7 percent of samples from EU and European Economic Area (EEA) countries exceeded legal limits, up from 1.6 percent in 2014, and 5.6 percent of the samples from non-EU countries exceeded legal limits, down from 6.5 percent the previous year.

Among these, the food that exceeded legal limits the most was broccoli at 3.4 percent, said the report. It was followed by table grapes, which was 1.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua