CFSAN Constituent Update - FY 2015 Pesticide Analysis Demonstrates Residue Levels Remain Low

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Constituent Update  View Past Updates

FY 2015 Pesticide Analysis Demonstrates Residue Levels Remain Low November 6, 2017   In a report issued today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that 98% of domestic and 90% of imported foods tested in FY 2015 were compliant with federal pesticide residue limits. Pesticides combat pests that may affect crop yield in human and animal food crops. Certain trace amounts of pesticides, or pesticide chemical residues, may remain in or on some foods. The FDA’s role is to ensure that pesticide chemical residues in or on foods comply with the limits that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes based on the applicable federal safety standard. The FDA reports that in FY 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015) the levels of pesticide chemical residues in or on food generally remained well below established federal tolerances, or EPA limits. Additionally, no pesticide chemical residues were found in 49.8% of the domestic and 56.8% of the imported human food samples analyzed. The Agency found pesticide chemical residues in violation of federal tolerances (residue levels above the tolerance or residues for which no tolerance has been established) in less than 2% (15 out of 835) of domestic samples and less than 10% (444 out of 4737) of import samples. The FDA also tested food intended for animals. No pesticide chemical residues were found in 51.6% of the 215 domestic animal food samples nor in 57.9% of the 202 imported animal food samples. Less than 3% (12 samples) of the animal food samples were found to contain violative pesticide chemical residues. In FY 2015, the FDA analyzed 5,989 samples in its regulatory monitoring program; 5,572 human foods and 417 animal foods. Because the violation rates of import samples are generally higher than for domestic samples, the FDA tests more imported commodities than domestic (4,737 import and 835 domestic samples). This represents imported human food samples from 111 countries and domestic human food samples from 39 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. The FDA employs a three-fold strategy to enforce the EPA’s tolerances for pesticide chemical residues. In its regulatory pesticide residue monitoring program, the FDA selectively monitors a broad range of imported and domestic commodities. The FDA may also carry out focused sampling surveys for commodities of interest. In addition to these two regulatory approaches, FDA monitors the levels of pesticide chemical residues in foods prepared for consumption in its Total Diet Study (TDS), an ongoing program that monitors contaminants and nutrients in the average U.S. diet. The FDA takes very seriously the responsibility it shares with EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep foods free of unsafe levels of pesticide chemical residues. The findings in this report demonstrate that overall levels of pesticide chemical residues measured by FDA are below EPA’s tolerances. For Additional Information FY 2015 Annual Pesticide Report and Data Questions and Answers on the Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Questions and Answers on Glyphosate