Residue testing of the 1997 hop harvest

For many years, Hallertauer Hopfenveredelungsgesellschaft has been carrying out residue checks, commissioned by the merchant companies Steiner, Lupofresh and Horst Company. As there have recently been press reports on "Pesticides in Beer", we are taking this opportunity to describe some results relating to the 1997 hop harvest.

 

 

 

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Der Postillon (@realpostillon) am Feb 18, 2020 um 12:30 PST

As hops are used as raw material for brewing, they are screened intensively for pesticide residue levels. In addition to the tests by the Institut für Hopfenforschung der Bayerischen Landesanstalt für Bodenkultur und Pflanzenbau (1) (Institute for Hop Research of the Bavarian State Institution for soil cultivation and plant agriculture), hop merchants also carry out such analyses.

Results in recent years have shown that the majority of pesticides in question leave no residues whatsoever. If residues are found, concentrations are mostly in the region of the detection limits and always substantially below the limit values approved by the RHmV, the German Regulations on Maximum Residue Levels.

As a result, press articles of November 1997 reporting on "Pesticides in Beer" allegedly originating from hops are quite surprising (2).

The Bavarian Brewers’ Association has already commented on these reports by issuing a statement "No Pesticide Residues in Beer" (3). The investigations described in the present article support the position of the Bavarian Brewers’ Association.

In order to evaluate the residue situation of a crop year, large batches are compiled immediately upon receipt of the hops and screened for all relevant pesticides.

These screenings are run in cooperation with external laboratories. Problematic substances are picked up in these pesticide screenings. Based on these results, random samples of raw hops and of resulting products were analysed during the processing season. Taking the 1994 harvest as an example, this strategy for residue screening has been explained in detail in the past (4).

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