Pest Management Regulatory Agency
25 May 2011
ISSN: 1925-0843 (PDF version)
Catalogue number: H113-24/2011-10E-PDF (PDF version)

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Under the authority of the  Pest Control Products Act, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has concluded that the addition of new uses on soybeans to the product label of Stratego 250EC Fungicide, containing technical grade propiconazole and trifloxystrobin, is acceptable. The specific uses approved in Canada are detailed on the label of Stratego 250EC Fungicide, Pest Control Products Act Registration Number 27528.

The evaluation of this application indicated that the end-use product has merit and value and the human health and environmental risks associated with the new uses are acceptable. Details regarding the registration can be found in the corresponding Evaluation Report that is available in the Pesticides and Pest Management section of Health Canada's Web site, under Public Registry, Pesticide Product Information Database.^{Footnote 1}

Before registering a pesticide for food use in Canada, the PMRA must determine the quantity of residues that are likely to remain in or on the food when the pesticide is used according to label directions and that such residues will not be a concern to human health. This quantity is then legally established as a maximum residue limit (MRL). An MRL applies to the identified raw agricultural food commodity as well as to any processed food product that contains it, except where separate MRLs are specified for the raw agricultural commodity and a processed product made from it.

Consultation on the proposed MRL for propiconazole is being conducted via this document (see Next Steps, the last section of this document).

To comply with Canada's international trade obligations, consultation on the proposed MRL is also being conducted internationally by notifying the  World Trade Organization, as coordinated by the  Standards Council of Canada.

The proposed MRL for propiconazole in Canada in or on food, to replace the corresponding MRL already legally established, is as follows.

Table 1 - Proposed Maximum Residue Limit for Propiconazole

Chemical Name	Residue Definition	MRL (ppm)	Food Commodities
Propiconazole	1-[[2-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-propyl-1,3-dioxolan-2-yl]methyl]-1H-1,2,4-triazole, including all metabolites containing the 2,4-dichlorophenyl-1-methyl substituted moiety	0.25*	Dry soybeans

A complete list of all pesticide MRLs established in Canada can be found on the Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides Web page in the Pesticides and Pest Management section of Health Canada's Web site.

International Situation and Trade Implications

MRLs may vary from one country to another for a number of reasons, including differences in pesticide use patterns and the locations of the field crop trials used to generate residue chemistry data. As per Table 2, the proposed MRL for propiconazole in Canada differs from both the corresponding American tolerance (as listed in the  Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 40 CFR Part 180, by pesticide) and the Codex Alimentarius MRL.^{Footnote 2} A listing of all established Codex MRLs is available on the Codex Alimentarius  Pesticide Residues in Food Web site.

Table 2 - Comparison of Canadian MRL, American Tolerance and Codex MRL

Food Commodity	Canadian MRL (ppm)	American Tolerance (ppm)	Codex MRL (ppm)
Dry soybeans	0.25	2.0	0.07

Next Steps

The PMRA invites the public to submit written comments on the proposed MRL for propiconazole up to 75 days from the date of publication of this document. Please forward your comments to Publications. The PMRA will consider all comments received before making a final decision on the proposed MRL for propiconazole and posting a corresponding Established Maximum Residue Limit document in the Pesticides and Pest Management section of Health Canada's Web site.