Written question asked by Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 14 December 2021, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 December 2021. It was answered by Jo Churchill (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 December 2021 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Disinfectants: Testing

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the minimum temperature thresholds for approval of animal disinfectant products.

Answer: The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, utilises fully validated and United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited tests. These tests operate at a temperature of four degrees centigrade. Whilst this is not the minimum temperature a disinfectant may need to operate at in the UK it is representative of typical UK conditions and significantly lower that the ten degrees centigrade required by European standard (EN) tests. Changing this temperature would have significant implications for the products already approved under this scheme.

Secondary information