Value for your membership:
Member benefits

- Free access to LIAISON Pesticide Approval Database

- Tips for pesticide residue testing

- About your mass balance

FREE access for Red Tractor Members to Fera’s LIAISON Pesticide Approval Database

As a Red Tractor member, you’re not only upholding the highest standards in food safety and quality - you’re also getting exclusive benefits that streamline your farming operations.

A valuable resource available to you is free access to Fera's LIASON pesticide approval database something that would cost £335 a year if you were not a Red Tractor grower.

Yes! Red Tractor foots the bill so you can access this essential tool at no additional cost!

LIAISON is a game-changer for managing plant protection products. It offers real-time access to crucial information like UK pesticide approvals, detailed product labels, and Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs). This database can be accessed directly through your Red Tractor Checkers and Services account, making it easier than ever to stay compliant and make informed choices for your crops.

This isn't just about convenience, Red Tractor’s investment in LIAISON helps you save time, cuts through complex regulations, and boosts the efficiency of your entire operation, whether you’re working in the office or out in the field.

By simplifying access to this pivotal information, Red Tractor ensures you can focus on what really matters: producing high-quality, safe food.

We find it as an invaluable resource as it provides a live list of approved products, harvest intervals and maximum rates for the products we utilise.

Stephen Shields, Technical & Sustainability Director at Huntapac

Click here to register for a Red Tractor checkers and services account and get access to LIASON.

Tips for effective pesticide residue testing with the standards

Pesticide residue testing verifies responsible use of plant protection products, ensures compliance with label instructions, confirms non-approved products haven’t been used, and checks that residues are within legal limits.

Along with being a Red Tractor requirement for a sample of each crop grown, your customers may also request this testing.

When choosing a lab for pesticide residue testing, consider these factors:

Accreditation: Ensure the lab is accredited for pesticide residue testing by UKAS or another ILAC signatory. This ensures reliable results. You can check UKAS accreditation here.
Testing Suite: Most labs offer a multi-residue screen covering commonly used chemicals. Make sure it includes all relevant tests for your crop, such as for dithiocarbamates, maleic hydrazide, or nitrates.
Collection Services: Some labs offer collection services, so check if your area is covered and whether it adds costs.
Peer Feedback: Ask other growers for recommendations. Grower groups may also negotiate group testing rates.
Clear Communication: Ensure clarity with the lab on contact details, procedures for exceedance detections, reporting timeframes, and sample collection requirements.

After testing, you’ll receive a certificate with the results. This is needed for assessments and may be requested by your customers. Understand the steps to take if an MRL exceedance occurs, as this may be part of a food safety management plan. You may find it useful to review the results to compare with application records, investigate unexpected chemicals, and identify trends to prevent future issues. A strong history of results could justify reduced testing frequency.

Click for more guidance

Mass Balance: What is it and why do I need to complete one?

A ‘mass balance’ calculation is required as part of standard TI.3 requiring an annual traceability test to demonstrate the effectiveness of a farm’s traceability systems.

By following the 'one up, one down' approach, members must be able to track all outloads from each specific batch of product. If an issue arises higher up the supply chain, it’s crucial for members to trace where all other outloads from the same batch have gone, enabling appropriate action to be taken when necessary. If food safety or legal compliance is at risk, this may require a product recall.

The fresh produce standards require this exercise to be carried out as part of your annual product recall test to demonstrate that systems work effectively. It is not required to keep a continuous mass balance record for all crops grown.

The process can vary significantly between farms. For instance, if a single batch is distributed to multiple customers, the exercise may become complex.

Conversely, if entire batches are consistently supplied to one customer, it becomes much simpler. It is important that waste is also considered to ensure all volume is accounted for.

Traceability and food safety are fundamental to the Red Tractor scheme so it’s essential that all farms demonstrate their ability to manage this effectively.

Important note:

The requirements of a mass balance calculation within the Fresh Produce standards differ fundamentally from the requirements within the Combinable Crops and Sugar Beet standards.

The combinable crops assessment requires the demonstration of a mass balance calculation rather than a forensic track through one batch of product.