Study of the Need to Criminalize Drug Residues in Food

Some of food producers use legal or illegal drugs and growth stimulants in order to gain more profit because of increasing production efficiency. Considering the variety of drugs and growth of stimulants used by the manufacturers and the extent of these crimes’ effects as much as the society’s people and even its impact on the future generation of the society of one hand, and with the aim of protecting the citizens of the other hand, it is necessary to gain an effective criminal policy in preventing such crimes via identify the MRL (maximum amount of remaining pharmaceutical substances in proteins) and criminalization of its violation in domestic laws, while implementing criminal justice.

In this article, while defining MRL and its effect on food consumers as well as examining the way these crimes are committed and their potential in current laws, the need to identify MRL and criminalize it in Iran law system is investigated with a descriptive and analytical method.

Ethical Considerations: 

In all stages of writing the present research, while respecting the originality of the texts, honesty and trustworthiness have been observed.

At the national level, due to lack of a precise definition of MRL and identification of the drug residue and growth stimulants level in food as well as presence of a legal gap in relation to these crimes, the legislator should protect the citizens and the future generation by defining the MRL and criminalizing its violation.

It can be concluded that at the level of domestic laws, despite the potential in the food and drink law, it is practically not possible to deal with the crimes related to presence of pharmaceutical residues in food due to lack of MRL recognition and its standard level.