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Issues: Food Safety

Pesticide Residues and Produce

Fresh fruits and vegetables are safe for both adults and children. Leading health authorities, including the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, U.S. Surgeon General, and American Heart Association, encourage Americans to eat servings of fruits and vegetables each day for better health. These experts have taken pesticide residues into account when making these recommendations.

Regulation of Pesticides

Protecting the U.S. produce supply from unsafe pesticide residues is the shared responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration, and produce farmers.

When the EPA sets residue tolerances, it routinely builds in a safety buffer of at least 100-fold. Imports must meet U.S. standards or they cannot be marketed in the United States. The EPA also takes into account the special diets of 22 sensitive groups, such as infants, children, pregnant women, and nursing women. In fact, the agency has denied tolerances for some pesticides because it was concerned about the adverse effects on children.

Safety of Pesticide Residues

Recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that 99% of fresh fruits and vegetables consumers buy in stores have either no pesticide residues or residues below established tolerances. The same study showed that some fruits and vegetables have residues of more than one pesticide in or on them. It also indicates that pesticide residues are lower than in past years. The levels of these residues are so infinitesimal that reputable health authorities have concluded that they are beneath any realistic threshold of harm.

Health experts routinely advise consumers to wash fruits and vegetables under clear drinking water before eating. In fact, many pesticides are water soluble and can be washed off under running water. These efforts also remove dirt and bacteria. Although minuscule amounts of pesticide residues may, in fact, remain, credible scientific evidence indicates they represent no risk.

PMA’s Position

Those who argue that consumers are at risk from the minuscule pesticide residues on fresh fruits and vegetables are ignoring the facts and are doing consumers a grave disservice. They willfully dismiss the overwhelming evidence from government, scientific, and health authorities that fruits and vegetables are safe and that the health benefits of frequent and regular consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables far outweigh any hypothetical risk.

The fresh fruit and vegetable industry constantly strives to provide consumers with safe, high quality, affordable products. The produce industry takes very seriously — and implements — scientifically responsible recommendations that will make our production practices and products better and safer.

Useful Resources
New! International Maximum Residue Limits Database provides users with a list of MRL tolerances by active ingredient to desired export destinations. Crop, pesticide active ingredient and pesticide type queries for over 300 fruit, vegetable and nut commodities are covered, as are 272 pesticides approved by the EPA for use on those commodities in the U.S. MRL data are included from 70 countries, the European Union and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex). Each country included in the database represents, at a minimum, $1 million in annual export revenue for U.S. horticultural commodities.