The European Commission has announced its new regulation for nitrate levels in leafy vegetables. The announcement, which has been under consideration for a number of years as part of its long term strategy to manage potential food safety risks from dietary intake, has been welcomed by UK farming bodies who claimed the original proposals put forward by the Commission would have been "unworkable" for British growers, as they "failed to reflect our particular production conditions".

The long term strategy included revising maximum nitrate levels across a range of leafy vegetables including spinach, lettuce and rocket. The main concern was that such produce has been shown to contain high levels of nitrates, increased when grown under cover and/or in the lower light conditions of northern European production systems.

The union claimed that initial plans for spinach and rocket may have led growers to regard them as unviable. The union also claimed the EU risk assessments on which the levels were based contained gross overestimations on both the occurrence and frequency of nitrate intake. A large flaw was an inability to differentiate between the consumption of spinach purchased from preserved or frozen, and that cooked fresh at home.

The Commission and member states have now reached an agreement on the maximum permitted levels for lettuce, spinach and rocket (rucola). The decision was based on advice from the European Food Safety Authority.

Revised limits for rocket (Eruca sativa, Diplotaxis sp., Brassica tenuifolia, Sisymbrium tenuifolium) are 7000 mg NO3/kg for product harvested between October 1 to March 31, and 6000 NO3/kg for product harvested between April 1 and September 30. This represents a 1,000mg increase on the original proposals. The new limits will now go before the EU Parliament and Council for scrutiny, but are expected to be rubber-stamped and come into effect later this year.