We work with our suppliers to support the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is the careful consideration of all available crop protection methods, where farmers and growers will use a range of measures that discourage the development of populations of harmful organisms. 

The aim is that crop protection products (such as pesticides) should only be used when needed, and at levels that are economically and ecologically justified, to help to reduce or minimise risks to health and the environment. Practically, at Sainsbury’s, we encourage our growers to minimise the use of pesticides wherever possible, through the use of IPM. For example, the use of crop covers, biological control, or new varieties can all be used as approaches to help address weed, pest, and disease challenges in crop production. Suppliers must be able to demonstrate an IPM based approach to crop protection. This should drive best practice and ensure that, where possible, crop protection product use is minimised. Some countries set IPM requirements in their legislation (where these are in place they must be followed), but Sainsbury’s also provide guidance to support our suppliers with IPM considerations, for example where there are no ‘in country’ requirements in place. 

Pesticides should be the last option as an IPM approach, after other forms of control have been considered and used in preference.

IPM approaches help to ensure that crop protection product use is based on the careful, safe, and appropriate use of professionally chosen plant protection products and can help to reduce the need of these products.  Sainsbury's supports minimising the use of crop protection products through the use of IPM.  However, we also recognise that the use of crop protection materials can still be required, for example, this might be:

- The prevention of rots and diseases either in the field or after harvest, helping us to reduce food waste 

• - Where other IPM methods have not been successful, or a pernicious/unexpected pest problem has occurred 
• - To help crops reach their potential to deliver yield, and produce food (otherwise other resources that have been used such as land, fuel and fertilisers might also be ‘wasted’) 
• - Often crops that have to be stored for longer, or crops we can’t grow in the UK, will need post-harvest treatments to stop rots and reduce food loss  
  

  
  

Where plant protection products are used, this should be a well-managed and targeted use of these materials within an IPM based approach. Our suppliers are required to show that all the products they intend to use are approved for use on the relevant crops in the country of use. For some pesticides (active ingredients) where specific risks have been identified, we ask our suppliers for higher levels of scrutiny on their IPM use, encouraging alternatives, and permitting use only where absolutely needed. An example could be where some fungicides or insecticides might be needed in specific cases to help manage resistance risks.

We also have a list of pesticides (active ingredients) that we do not allow to be used in our supply chains, for example, some of the most hazardous materials that have been identified through international conventions (such as Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions).

These lists of pesticides are dynamic and reviewed regularly by industry experts to ensure we stay up to date and continue to support our suppliers around best practice.

Where crop protection products are used, they must meet legally set ‘maximum residue levels’ (MRL). This is the highest level of a pesticide footprint (residue) that is legally permitted. In addition to Sainsbury’s own internal residue testing programme, our suppliers must have a transparent approach to pesticide residue testing and reporting where crop protection products are used. Any testing programme must be based on a risk assessment, for example, considering relevant risk factors for that particular crop and country of production. Tests must be undertaken by an accredited laboratory and shared with Sainsbury’s for review, and if we see an exceedance or even a high level, we will investigate with suppliers to understand why this occurred and to support best practices and learning, working together to keep residue levels as low as we reasonably can.

Summary of supplier residue testing results over the last five years (2019-2023)

- We test a wide range of fresh produce. A summary is presented in the table. This shows how many tests we have carried out and information on typical levels of detection.

- What are our most common results? – our most common result is no detection at all.  

- The rest of the top 5 most common residue results are all fungicides
- Typically used to stop rots, helping to reduce food waste (for example materials used after harvest in citrus to help reduce food waste when storing or shipping).

The mean crop protection product residue level detected in a given year. Data presented as a % of the MRL for all supplier residue data collected in that year.

There have been some changes in the way this data is collected and collated over this time period (e.g. the number and types of tests and range of crops will vary), however, the data in each column is a common representation of the mean value for all the MRL data recorded in a given year.

We expect our suppliers to have an active involvement in our Sainsbury’s Crop Action Group (CAG) and similar activities (e.g. groups where we might work across crop types on common areas of concern). We work together to share insight, horizon scanning and best practice – to learn from each other. This will not only cover crop protection but also other areas, for example, IPM, food waste, legislation, environment and wider areas of our Plan for Better/Better for the Planet commitments. Working together in this way helps to encourage best practice and improve risk awareness to support sustainable and resilient IPM based crop production.