Every year, programmes for the surveillance and control of contamination in foodstuffs of animal origin are organised by the Directorate General for Food (DGAL). These programmes constitute an important tool in the food safety system. In animal production, eleven surveillance programmes are carried out for the detection of pesticide residues. Samples are collected in the preliminary stage in farms. Multi-residue methods are used to test for pesticide residues in foodstuffs. Programmes organised in 2014 and  2015 generated nearly 161,000 analysis results. Detected contamination levels were very low (no non-compliant samples in 2014, two in 2015) in accordance with the results obtained by other Member States. The only two non-compliant samples detected concerned lindane. This contamination was probably due to the persistence of this substance in the environment.