Pesticides Pollution Of Food - Risks And Implications For Consumer Protection

The paper examines the current meanings and implications of pesticide residues in foods for human consumption, suggesting attitudes and courses of action required in this area in order to minimize the negative effects from the consumer protection perspective. The analysis is based on studying the relevant information from various different sources concerning the use of pesticides, the effects of consumption of food contaminated with pesticide residues, the state of the regulations in this area, the attitudes of the various actors, drawing - on this basis – a set of necessary actions to be taken in order to ensure real protection for consumers. The fact that the presence of pesticide residues in food - above the scientifically established limits - is a real danger is already a known fact, unfortunately not sufficiently considered by the legislative decision bodies. Due to the controversial character of data on the impact and effects of pesticide residues that can be found today - in increasingly large quantities - in the food, this field is a delicate one, being subject to changes in vision, keeping up with increasing availability and acceptability of scientific data. The question that arises can be formulated as follows: will we be able to place first the need for food safety and consumer health, by sacrificing economic interests?