Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF)
The Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF) provides independent advice to the government on the monitoring of pesticide residues in food.
The UK and devolved governments have reviewed the arrangements for obtaining expert advice on the pesticide residues in food monitoring programme. They have decided that obtaining advice from the Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food is no longer part of the best model. As a result, the committee will be wound down. All other existing arrangements will remain in place.
The decision reflects the positive contribution the committee has made over a number of years. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) now has comprehensive systems in place to ensure that the programme and assessment of results are technically and scientifically robust, transparent and meet professional standards. With all these activities now in place, the need for a dedicated standing committee has reduced.
The HSE will continue to get expert advice as needed, from sources including:
- the Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP)
- the Food Standards Agency (FSA)
- the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD)
- industry bodies
- official laboratories
This will ensure that there is no reduction in standards of safety or the rigour of the food monitoring programme. The programme has demonstrated high levels of compliance over the years that it has been active.
The government remains dedicated to ensuring that:
- its work to regulate and monitor pesticides residues in food remains robust and transparent
- pesticides are applied in accordance with legal requirements
- the food on our shelves is safe for people to eat
The committee will formally close in May 2026, after considering the findings for the final quarter of the 2025 monitoring programme. All results of the residue monitoring programme and the annual Pesticides Residues in Food report will continue to be published on GOV.UK.
The Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF) provides independent advice to the government on how to plan and deliver monitoring programmes for pesticide residues in the food supply in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Specifically, the role of the committee is to provide independent advice to ministers on:
- presenting results from monitoring programmes - in particular to ensure that results can be easily understood by the public
- planning monitoring programmes - in particular, advising on which foods to survey, availability of produce, location and frequency of sampling and pesticides to test for
- determining the likely causes of adverse findings detected
In carrying out its role, the committee will:
- make its scientific advice and views available to the public and other interested parties in a way which aims to be comprehensive, clear and timely
- report to Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser
- operate in line with the government’s Principles for Scientific Advice and the Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees
The Secretariat is provided by the Health and Safety Executive.
All committee papers from before October 2015 are available on the National Archives website.
Terms of Reference
The are set by ministers.
Membership
The committee currently consists of the following members:
- Ann Davison (Chair) – Co-founder of Fairtrade Foundation, set up and served on Transatlantic Consumers Dialogue
- Dr Jonathan Blackman – Horticultural technical manager at H L Hutchinson Ltd
- Ian Finlayson – Consultant on food safety, sustainability and ethical production
- John Points – Consultant providing advice to food retailers and producers on chemical risk assessment, analytical testing and the interpretation of results
- Debbie Winstanley – Debbie is a public interest member of the committee, an agronomist with commercial experience in the UK food supply chain and who works with charities supporting good farming practice and biodiversity
Full details can be found in our .
Results of monitoring programme
The government regularly publishes the results of the monitoring of UK grown and imported food to check for any pesticide residues. These monitoring results are reviewed by the committee.
Meetings
Meetings are generally closed to the public. We aim to publish the agenda shortly before each meeting, and we publish minutes of meetings alongside the quarterly report that was discussed at the meeting.
Minutes and papers
Earlier committee papers are available on the National Archives website.
Upcoming meetings:
- 15 October 2025
- 28 January 2026
- 13 May 2026
Annual report
We publish an annual report summarising the work of the committee:
- Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF): annual report
- Annual reports from before 2015 are available on the National Archives website