Research need from Focus Group: Focus on organic contaminants in some of the recovery pathways, like impacts of organic components on soil ecology and on food safety and how to improve the processing to treat these contaminants

This need for research has been identified in FG 19 on “Nutrient recycling”. If you want to know more about it, check the final report of the Focus Group.

The list of potential organic substances is long and non-exhaustive as opposed to the list of potential inorganic elements which is well-delineated and exhaustive. Organics can enter the agro-food chain through various pathways, of which agro-pharmaceuticals is only one such example. Whenever organic biological wastes or sludge are processed and recycled for their nutrients, these can expose agrosystems to additional risk concerning xenobiotic compounds. Specific research needs in this area identified by the FG include: collating existing data on organic contaminants from different sources (member states, industries, research) and filling data gaps; information on what happens to organic contaminants during manure processing and how to improve processing to treat these contaminants; impacts of organic contaminants on soil ecology and on food safety.