UK monitoring programme for nitrate in lettuce and spinach 2003

Monday 10 January 2005

Food Survey Information Sheet 70/05

The Food Standards Agency carried out a monitoring programme for nitrate in lettuce and spinach throughout 2003. Two hundred samples of UK lettuces and spinach were obtained from seven growing regions across the UK. The samples were collected by ADAS Ltd and the analyses carried out by Direct Laboratories.

Levels of nitrate in lettuce and spinach are governed by EU legislation. This legislation allows an optional transitional period (a 'derogation') during which the limits do not apply. The UK and some other Member States are applying this derogation, which ends on 1 January 2005 for lettuce and will be reviewed for spinach on or after that date.

In 2003, 124 samples of lettuce (excluding iceberg) were analysed. Three UK samples (2%) would be above the limits if they applied in the UK. Thirty-nine samples of iceberg lettuce were analysed, with none exceeding the limits. Thirty-nine samples of spinach were analysed and 14 (36%) would be above the limits if they applied in the UK. No sources of winter spinach were found and no frozen or preserved spinach of UK origin was found in retail outlets.

Estimations of nitrate intake have shown that even the highest nitrate levels in lettuce and spinach found in the UK monitoring programme are not likely to cause even high-level (97.5th percentile) consumers of lettuce or of spinach to exceed the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) as set by the Scientific Committee for Food, taking into account all sources of nitrate in the diet. There is therefore no concern for human health from the nitrate content of UK-grown lettuce or spinach.