Pesticide residues on infant foods and adult foods that infants and children eat are almost always well below tolerances (the highest levels legally allowed) set by the Environmental Protection Agency. This was the conclusion of a recent Food and Drug Administration report based on the agency's monitoring of these types of foods over the last seven years.
The FDA report,"monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Infant Foods and Adult Foods Eaten by Infants and Children," was published in May-June 1993 issue of the Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists International.
The authors, consumer safety officer Norma Yess and chemists Ellis Gunderson and Ronald Roy of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, based their findings on food samples from the three approaches FDA uses to monitor pesticides: Regulatory, incidence and level, and Total Diet Study.
Through the regulatory approach, FDA checks foods close to the point of production for levels of residues and, if they are violative, considers enforcement action. Incidence and level is a study approach that analyzes selected samples of certain foods. Total Diet Study is an approach that uses data from supermarket shopping.
Of more than 10,000 food samples reported from regulatory monitoring, fewer than 50 were violative. No residues over EPA and FDA action levels were found in samples from the incidence and level studies. In the Total Diet Study, no residues were found in infant formulas, and no residues over FDA or EPA allowed levels were found.
The responsibility for ensuring that residues of pesticides in foods are not present at levels that will pose a danger to health is shared by FDA, EPA, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pesticides of concern include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other agricultural chemicals.
EPA reviews the scientific data on all pesticide products before they can be registered (or licensed) for use. If a product is intended for use on food crops, EPA also establishes a tolerance.
FDA is responsible for enforcing these tolerances on all foods except meat, poultry, and certain egg products, which are monitored by USDA. In addition, FDA works with EPA to set "action levels"-- enforcement guidelines for residues of pesticides, such as DDT, that may remain in the environment after their use is discontinued. The guidelines are set at levels the protect public health.
In its regulatory monitoring to enforce EPA-set tolerances, FDA checks foods for pesticide residues as close to production of the commodity as possible--at distributors, at food processors, or, if imported, at entry into the country. If illegal residues are found in domestic samples, FDA can take regulatory action, such as seizure or injunction. For imports, FDA can stop shipments at ports of entry.
The FDA report used data from FDA regulatory monitoring between 1985 and 1991. The authors chose eight foods that infants and children eat in relatively large quantities--apples, bananas, oranges and pears;apple, grape and orange juice; and milk. FDA found 50 violative samples, representing only 0.3 percent of domestic products and 0.6 percent of imports reported under the regulatory monitoring approach.
All foods samples in regulatory monitoring are analyzed unwashed and unpeeled--even bananas. Yess explains that because food processors, and most consumers, wash or peel produce before eating or using it in food products, many of the violative samples reported in the FDA study showed higher residues that the actual amount people are exposed to. Studies have shown that residues of many pesticides can be washed off fresh produce, a good practice for anyone fixing a salad or snacking in grapes (refer to end of document).
Of the 50 violative samples, nearly all were pesticide residues for which there were no tolerances of EPA "approval for use" on the specific food sampled. Since pesticides are registered for specific crops, residues on crops for which the pesticide has not been registered are illegal.
A few samples had residues higher than EPA tolerances or FDA action levels in effect at the time; a number of tolerances were revised between 1985 and 1991. The revisions for daminozide (Alar), for example, reflect that it has not been used in agriculture since 1989.
Some domestic milk samples showed small amounts of chlorinated pesticide residues. The registration for food use for these compounds expired more than 20 years ago, but because they persist in the environment, residues are still found at low levels.
When FDA wants to know more about specific pesticides, commodities, or pesticide-commodity combinations, the agency supplements its regulatory monitoring by analyzing selected samples of certain foods in incidence and level monitoring.
For the pesticide residue report, the authors used the results of two studies. One study targeted five specific commodity- pesticide combinations for infant foods and foods commonly eaten by infants and children. The analyses for this study were directed by FDA and completed in 1990, analyzed whole pasteurized milk samples through an FDA-supported contract.
Both studies included results of analyses of several pesticides and pesticide-commodity combinations that been the focus of public attention within the last five years. No residues over EPA tolerances of FDA action levels were found in samples from either of the two studies.
The first study involved five tasks. In the first, about 900 samples of commercially prepared infant foods and formulas were collected and analyzed for residues of the following pesticides:
The other four tasks were analyses of adult foods eaten by infants and children:
These-quarters of the samples collected for all tasks were from large retail grocery stores in six states--Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Washington. The remaining samples were collected in the Gulfport, Miss., area (the home of USDA's National Monitoring and Residues Analysis Laboratory, where the FDA-directed study was done). The prepared infant foods and formula samples were selected mostly from the major manufacturers.
The second study showed the results of sampling for residues of the organochlorine group of pesticides in whole pasteurized milk. Organochlorine pesticide residues- mostly DDT, DDE and dieldrin--were found in 398 of the 806 milk samples, but all were well below EPA tolerances or FDA action levels.
Samples for the milk study came from monthly collections at 63 sampling stations that are a part of EPA's Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring Systems, located in large metropolitan areas throughout the United States. At each sampling station, milk from selected sources was combined to represent the milk routinely consumed in that area. Portions of the milk were sent to an FDA contract laboratory for analysis.
For its report, FDA also used data from the Total Diet Study, which is used to monitor a number of nutritional concerns, including pesticides. As part of the Total Diet Study, FDA staffers shop in supermarket or grocery stores four times a year, once in each of four geographical regions of the country. Shopping in three cities from each region, they buy the same 234 foods (including meat), selected from nationwide dietary survey data to typify the American diet. The purchased foods are called "market baskets."
Foods from the market baskets are then prepared as a consumer would prepare them. For example, beef and vegetable stew is made from the collected ingredients, using a standard recipe. The prepared foods are analyzed for pesticide residues, and the results, together with USDA consumption studies, are used to estimate the dietary intakes of pesticide residues for eight age- sex groups ranging from infants to senior citizens.
For their report, the FDA researchers included results from 27 market baskets collected and analyzed between 1985 and 1991. Included were 33 different infant foods (both strained and junior), 10 adult foods eaten by infants and children, and four types of milk. The infant foods included cereals, combination meat and poultry dinners, vegetables, desserts, fruits and fruit juices,and infant formulas. The adult foods included apples, oranges, pears, and bananas; apple, grape and orange juices;applesauce;grape jelly; and peanut butter. Milks were chocolate, evaporated, low-fat (2 percent), and whole.
No residues were found in the infant formulas, and no residues over EPA tolerances or FDA action levels were found in any of the Total Diet Study foods. Low levels of malathion were found in some cereals because malathion is widely used both before and after harvest on grains. Low levels of thiabendazole, a post-harvest fungicide used on many fruits, were found on some of the fruits and fruit products.
The low levels of pesticide residues found in the Total Diet Study and incidence-level monitoring samples show how processing foods or otherwise preparing them for consumption at the table can reduce residue levels. Washing at home removes much of the residues. But commercial food processing steps, such as peeling and blanching, can further reduce residues. For example, the highest finding of thiabendazole in raw apples was 2 parts per million (EPA tolerance is 10ppm), 0.08 in apple juice, and 0.06 in applesauce.
Also, agricultural specialists from major infant food manufacturers work with their contract growers to minimize pesticide applications and to ensure that only those pesticides specified in the contract are applied. Therefore, when pesticide residues are found on infant foods, they are usually well below EPA tolerances
Washing fresh produce before eating is a healthful habit. You can reduce and often eliminate residues if they are present on fresh fruits and vegetables by following these simple tips:
Supermarkets, as a rule, don't wash produce before putting it out, but many stores mist it while its on display. Misting keeps the produce from drying, but surface residues drain off also, in much the same way as from a light was under the kitchen faucet.
A 1990 report in the EPA Journal by three chemists from the agency, Joel Garbus, Susan Hummel, and Stephanie Willet, summarized four studies of fresh tomatoes treated with a fungicide, which were tested a harvest, at the packing house, and at point of sale to the consumer. The studies showed that more than 99 percent of the residues were washed off at the packing house by the food processor.
A 1989 study reported by Edgar Elkins in the Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists showed the effects of peeling, blanching and processing on a number of fruits and vegetables. For example, in the case of benomyl, 83 percent of the residues found on fresh apples were removed during processing into applesauce, 98 percent of residues from oranges processed to juice were removed, and 86 percent of residues from fresh tomatoes processed to juice were removed. Another study in 1991 by Gary Eilrich, reported in an American Chemical Society Symposium, showed similar results.
FDA Consumer: by Judith E. Foulke, June 1993
Hypertext updated by rwk/ear 2001-SEP-07