§ 180.40 Tolerances for crop groups.

(a) Group or subgroup tolerances may be established as a result of:

(1) A petition from a person who has submitted an application for the registration of a pesticide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

(2) On the initiative of the Administrator.

(3) A petition by an interested person.

(b) The tables in § 180.41 are to be used in conjunction with this section for the establishment of crop group tolerances. Each table in § 180.41 lists a group of raw agricultural commodities that are considered to be related for the purposes of this section. Refer also to § 180.1(g) for a listing of commodities for which established tolerances may be applied to certain other related and similar commodities.

(c) When there is an established or proposed tolerance for all of the representative commodities for a specific group or subgroup of related commodities, a tolerance may be established for all commodities in the associated group or subgroup. Tolerances may be established for a crop group or, alternatively, tolerances may be established for one or more of the subgroups of a crop group.

(d) The representative crops are given as an indication of the minimum residue chemistry data base acceptable to the Agency for the purposes of establishing a group tolerance. The Agency may, at its discretion, allow group tolerances when data on suitable substitutes for the representative crops are available (e.g., limes instead of lemons).

(e) Since a group tolerance reflects maximum residues likely to occur on all individual crops within a group, the proposed or registered patterns of use for all crops in the group or subgroup must be similar before a group tolerance is established. The pattern of use consists of the amount of pesticide applied, the number of times applied, the timing of the first application, the interval between applications, and the interval between the last application and harvest. The pattern of use will also include the type of application; for example, soil or foliar application, or application by ground or aerial equipment. Additionally, since a group tolerance reflects maximum residues likely to occur on all individual foods within a group, food processing practices must be similar for all crops in the group or subgroup if the processing practice has the potential to result in residues in a processed commodity at a higher concentration than the raw agricultural commodity.