11 September 2026, Parma, Italy: The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opened a public consultation on September 10, 2026 on setting a new maximum residue level (MRL) for the neonicotinoid insecticide acetamiprid in grapes, following an application submitted by Nisso Chemical Europe GmbH. Comments are due by September 14, 2026, giving stakeholders a narrow window to weigh in before EFSA moves to its formal scientific opinion.
An MRL is the highest level of pesticide residue legally allowed to remain on a food or feed product when it is sold, and EFSA reviews and recommends these limits before the European Commission adopts them into regulation. Applications like this one are typically filed by an agrochemical registrant seeking to align the EU’s residue limit for a given crop with either a new approved use, an import tolerance for produce grown outside the EU, or updated efficacy and residue trial data. The consultation notice, hosted on EFSA’s Connect platform, does not itself confirm the intended purpose, and the exact scope of the requested change was not detailed in the summary made available to trade press.
The application lands amid heightened sensitivity around acetamiprid in Europe. The substance is one of a small number of neonicotinoids still authorized for use in the EU under certain conditions, after most uses of related compounds such as imidacloprid and clothianidin were restricted over risks to bees and other pollinators. Acetamiprid itself has drawn criticism from environmental and public health groups, including PAN Europe, which has argued the compound carries neurotoxic risks that warrant tighter, not looser, restrictions. The debate became politically charged in France earlier this year, when an emergency agricultural law conditionally reauthorized limited use of acetamiprid and one other pesticide for specific crops facing pest pressure with no viable alternative, a move that triggered public protest and legal challenges from environmental groups.
The acetamiprid consultation is also unfolding against a broader EU review of how it sets residue limits for imported produce. A study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, examined in the same trade briefing that surfaced the acetamiprid consultation, modeled the economic impact of tightening MRLs to the limit of quantification, effectively a near zero threshold, for 18 hazardous pesticides that are not approved for use inside the EU but can still appear as residues on imported commodities from 86 countries. The JRC estimated the change could reduce the value of affected EU agricultural imports by between 0.4 percent and 41 percent depending on the product category, underscoring how residue policy decisions on individual substances like acetamiprid sit inside a much larger and unresolved debate over the EU’s Food and Feed Safety Simplification Package, proposed in December 2025.
Separately, the European Commission has continued extending approval periods for a number of existing active substances while their formal renewal assessments remain pending, most recently through Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1826, a routine but closely watched mechanism that keeps older chemistries legally on the market without yet resolving their long term status.
Global Agriculture is an independent international media platform covering agri-business, policy, technology, and sustainability. For editorial collaborations, thought leadership, and strategic communications, write to pr@global-agriculture.com
