Important reminder for growers around off-label use of products

Written by Stephen Salter, Market Access Solutionz

First published in the March 2022 issues of The Orchardist and NZGrower.

Off-label use of crop protection products is needed to manage pests, diseases and weeds in a number of minor crops. While the practice is legal, growers are responsible for ensuring that off-label use is necessary, safe and compliant. There are important steps that growers need to follow to ensure correct products are used and that residue levels are within regulatory and customer limits.

Off-label use occurs when growers need to use a product to control a pest, disease or weed – but the label does not carry a claim for that crop or target. While the flexibility of being able to use crop protection products off-label is critical to New Zealand growers, they are unable to rely on label directions to ensure regulatory controls are complied with. Without label guidance, there is a risk that off-label use may result in exceedance of maximum residue limits (MRLs) or other compliance breaches. Results from residue testing programmes over several years show where residue levels exceeded MRLs (Maximum Residue Levels), these incidents were sometimes due to products being used off-label.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) conducts a Food Residues Survey Programme which monitors residues on a range of domestic and imported fruit and vegetables. Residue non-compliance in this project can be as a result of off-label use where no MRL is set and the New Zealand default of 0.1mg/kg applies, or where off-label use of the product is not allowed and consequently any detection of the active is a non-compliance. MRL non-compliances can have serious and negative financial implications for growers, so ensuring that all growers understand the rules and requirements for each crop protection product used – and how to comply with all controls – is important.

To attempt to address this issue, NZGAP produces guidance on the use of off-label crop protection products. This is updated annually and growers, particularly of minor crops, are strongly encouraged to read this. All growers who use products off-label should read this document. It provides practical information to help meet regulatory requirements under the Agricultural Compounds & Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act, Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act, Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) and Food Act.

The 2022 Guidance has been updated with two new appendices:

1. Off-label use poster

   The Vegetable Research & Innovation (VR&I) board and MPI produced a downloadable poster designed for growers when using a product off-label on a crop or pest that is not registered on the label.

2. Acephate and Methamidophos poster

   The VR&I board also produced a downloadable guidance poster for vegetable growers to ensure legal use of the two actives, acephate and methamidophos. The insecticides acephate and methamidophos (organophosphates) are not allowed to be used off-label on vegetable crops. This is a legal requirement and these restrictions have been in force since 2015.
   
   Links to each of these posters are included in the new off-label guidance document. Hard copies can also be sent to you by contacting your business manager.

Before the season commences, when designing or updating spray plans, growers should carefully consider what products may need to be used off-label. The document provides a decision tree for determining if a product can be used off-label as well as a checklist for ensuring compliance. It is recommended that growers’ considerations and decision making around off-label use of a product are documented and lodged in their spray diary. 

WorkSafe and regional plan requirements must also be met. This includes tasks such as complying with neighbour notification, buffer zones, re-entry intervals and signage requirements.

These off-label use guidelines are not an exhaustive list of all steps growers must take to ensure regulatory compliance, particularly with regard to WorkSafe and regional council requirements which can differ from region to region. Requirements will also vary between growers because what is a “reasonably practicable” step to take to ensure the safety of your workers and bystanders will depend on many factors in each operation. Whilst some WorkSafe requirements are specific, such as thresholds over which signage is required, others are based around the principle of eliminating and minimising risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable.

The 2022 version of the off-label guideline document is available here:  www.nzgap.co.nz/guidelines

If you have further queries, please contact NZGAP: info@nzgap.co.nz, or your product group manager.