These regulatory instruments against illegal and counterfeit pesticides concern various areas : the protection of the intellectual property rights (patents, trade marks,...), the approval of active substances and the placing of the plant protection products on the European market, the classification and labelling, the transport of dangerous goods, the information on the supply chain, the control procedures and legal prosecution (customs, police, justice, food safety agencies), and the development of technical guidances for the control. The activities of private actors are also described.
This overview demonstrates the difficulties to gather the administrative information on a particular plant protection product, due to the complexity of the legislations, the absence of interconnections between the administrative databases and the numerous competent authorities involved in the struggle against the illegal trade of pesticides.
The present review article has been prepared in the framework of the DEPIPEST project, an Innovative screening methodology by vibrational spectroscopy (MIR, RAMAN) and confirmation by chromatographic methods (GC, LC, MS) of counterfeit pesticide formulations.
The research that yields these results is funded by the Belgian Federal Public Service of Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment through the contract RF22/6354.
