The sales bans on Saxon wines that contained residues of an insecticide that is illegal in Germany were unlawful. The maximum content of the pesticide dimethoate had not been set in the maximum residue limit regulation issued by the Federal Ministry, but in an EU regulation, justified on Thursday the 3rd Senate of the Federal Administrative Court Leipzig his decision.
Concretely, it was about the sales ban for several wines, which had been imposed in June 2016 by the district of Meißen, because the content of dimethoate in the wine had exceeded the value of 0.01 milligrams per kilo. In the previous year, the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Bautzen had rejected the appeal of the Meißen winegrowers' cooperative on the grounds that this pesticide was not approved in Germany (OVG Bautzen, judgment dated January 27, 2022 - 3 A 1196/19). Several tens of thousands of liters of wine were destroyed according to the winegrowers' cooperative as a result.
In the EU regulation, limits of 0.02 milligrams per kilo were set for dimethoate, because these values were classified as not hazardous to health. This value had fallen below the wines concerned.
The procedure is in connection with the so-called wine scandal in Saxony. The stone to this was brought in the fall of 2015 during a routine control at a winery in the Meißen district in the roll. At that time, residues of dimethoate were found. The Meißen winegrowers' cooperative had produced the wines from grapes supplied by members. In the meantime, the control system has been changed. In the meantime, all quality and predicate wines are analyzed centrally via the state testing institute in a modified testing procedure.
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