EFSA is conducting pan‐European dietary exposure and risk assessments related to actual levels of pesticide residues in food commodities. These assessments use the pesticide occurrence data generated under the official monitoring programs of Member States, the consumption data from EFSA's comprehensive food consumption database and pesticide‐specific information such as processing factors. Currently no harmonised list of processing factors is available within Europe and worldwide. The overall objective of this project is to develop a database of validated processing factors, which is compatible with the EFSA food classification and description system FoodEx 2. In the first part of the project, a compendium of representative processing techniques was elaborated which serves as a standard description of all relevant processes and as a basis for validation of processing studies. In the second part of the project all relevant processes and raw and processed commodities were coded according to FoodEx2. In the third and last part of the project all processing studies used by EFSA in their Conclusions and Reasoned Opinions issued until 30/06/2016 were re‐evaluated according to uniform quality criteria and reported in a database. The database is provided as a flat Excel spreadsheet. Information on processing conditions, on analytical methods, storage stability and GLP was collected from the studies and was used to judge the acceptability of each processing study. The representativeness of the processing conditions applied in the studies was judged by comparing them to the compendium of representative processing techniques. Processing factors (PF) were derived from the studies according to comprehensible calculation rules and based on the residue definitions for monitoring. The individual PF were judged for their acceptability. For each commodity/process/active substance combination a median PF was calculated from the individual ones, based on the trials from one or more studies. The database is a ready‐to‐use inventory of PF for pesticides in a variety of processed food items. In a pilot project a second database was set up with processing factors based on the residue definition for dietary risk assessment. Extension of this database is recommended.

The EU database of processing factors for pesticide residues has been set up in 2018 and was now updated for the first time. 1301 processing studies were added to the database extending it to more than double size. The studies were either provided to EFSA in MRL setting procedures or pesticide peer reviews or they were submitted to BfR in the framework of national or zonal authorization procedures. All studies have been thoroughly (re‐)evaluated with respect to the well‐proven set of quality parameters already applied in the EU database. Processing factors were derived and their reliabilities judged. For newly reported processes such as palm oil and palm kernel oil production, sugar production from sugar cane and sake production from rice the representative processes have been described. Furthermore, new processed matrices such as selected cooked vegetables or pulses have been added to the database and to the accompanying documents.

EFSA is conducting pan‐European dietary exposure and risk assessments related to actual levels of pesticide residues in food commodities. These assessments use the pesticide occurrence data generated under the official monitoring programs of Member States, the consumption data from EFSA's comprehensive food consumption database and pesticide‐specific information such as processing factors. Currently no harmonised list of processing factors is available within Europe and worldwide. The overall objective of this project is to develop a database of validated processing factors based on the residue definitions for enforcement, which is compatible with the EFSA food classification and description system FoodEx 2. In the first part of the project, a compendium of representative processing techniques is elaborated as a standard description of all relevant processes and basis for validation of processing studies. The compendium of processing techniques is built upon a selection of representative and up‐to‐date processing studies submitted in the context of regulatory procedures for plant protection products. It covers the most important processes in food processing, both with respect to importance in consumption and production. Though not really considered as processing operations, peeling and pitting procedures are included in this compendium. For each process, a typical set of processing conditions is provided based on published literature and/or inquiry in the food processing industry. Detailed descriptions of processing conditions and yield factors for the processes are given. The processes are visualised in flowcharts. Processing studies are conducted on a very limited number of representative commodities. Extrapolation proposals are made based on the comparability of processing conditions, the plant anatomy and the plant part to be processed.

In the framework of the project ‘Database of processing techniques and processing factors compatible with the EFSA food classification and description system FoodEx2’ a compendium of representative processing techniques was prepared as a result of Objective 1. In Objective 2 the food / feed items and processes as described in the compendium of Objective 1 were coded using the FoodEx2 coding system. The coding covers the raw agricultural commodities and the food / feed items obtained after processing. Additionally a key facet was added in order to be able to link food and feed items to the EFSA RAC (Raw Agricultural Commodity)‐model. The RAC‐model links the food items as coded in the consumption data to raw agricultural commodities. Food items in this model are also coded using the FoodEx2 coding system. The sources used to code the foods, feeds and processes are described, as well as the coding decisions.

The concentration of pesticide residues in agricultural products at harvest can change during subsequent processing steps. This change, commonly expressed as Processing Factor (PF), is influenced by the raw agricultural commodity, and the processing conditions, as well as the properties of the substances. As it is not possible to conduct processing studies for all possible combinations of pesticide × process × product, new approaches for determining processing factors are needed. Wine was chosen as the object of the present study because it is a widely consumed product. Furthermore, it is already known that the concentration of pesticide residues can change considerably during the processing of grapes into wine, substantiating the need for PFs for a large number of pesticides. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between selected physicochemical properties and PFs. In addition, the influence of different winemaking processes was explored. For this purpose, 70 processing studies conducted by pesticide manufacturers in the framework of regulatory procedures were evaluated in detail and PFs were derived for 20 pesticides. For wine, a good correlation between the PF and the octanol-water partition coefficient of the substances was found, depending on the specific production methods used. Exemplarily, the coefficient of determination for white wine was 0.85, and 0.81 for red wine, when thermovinification was applied. These results can serve as the basis for a predictive model to be validated further with future winemaking studies for pesticides.