ELECTRONIC FOOD RAP
VOL. 6 NO. 52
Bill Evers, PhD, RD and April Mason, PhD
Extension Foods and Nutrition Specialists
The article below again brings to light that what is perceived to be
a problem and what is really a problem are not always the same. While some
groups raise frightening scenarios of a food supply jeopardized by pesticides,
the results from surveillance would indicate that the concern is much less
than that.
FOOD CHEMICAL NEWS, pages 16-17, DECEMBER 16, 1996
PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN U.S. FOOD SUPPLY
ARE WELL BELOW ESTABLISHED SAFETY STANDARDS
The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 1995 report (dated
October, 1996) on Pesticide Program Residue Monitoring would
indicate that the levels of pesticide residues in the U.S. food
supply remain well below established safety standards. FDA
pointed out that the levels are about the same as they have been
for the past several years, with no violative pesticide residues
found in nearly 99% of all domestic surveillance samples. The
report looks at analyses of raw agricultural products as well as
processed products.
FDA usually sets a lower limit for a specific pesticide that is
substantially below the tolerance level for that pesticide. This
is most often in the 0.1 parts per million (ppm) to 50 ppm
according to the report. For an individual pesticide the
particular limit may range from 0.005 ppm to 1 ppm. The report
noted that the term "trace" refers to residues that are detected
but are below the limit of quantification.
"Most samples collected by FDA are the surveillance type; that
is, there is no prior knowledge or evidence that a specific food
shipment contains illegal pesticide residues," the report noted.
"Compliance samples are taken as a follow-up to the finding of an
illegal residue or when other evidence indicates that a pesticide
residue problem may exist."
The report gave the following information for fiscal year 1995:
* About 10,615 samples (10,133 surveillance and 482 compliance)
were analyzed
* 5,198 of those were domestic and 5,417 were imports
* Fruits and vegetables accounted for 59% of the total of 5,101
domestic surveillance samples
Results of the DOMESTIC analyses by category were:
Category Number of No Nonviolative Violative
samples residues residues residues
% % %
grains/grain
products 389 59 40 <1
milk/dairy
products/eggs 1,086 92.5 7.5 0
fish/shellfish 423 64 36 0
fruits 1,437 40 59 <2
vegetables 1,585 63 35 2
"other"* 181 94 5.6 <0.5
*The "other" category contained 61 samples of baby foods/formula.
This is about three times the number of baby food samples
analyzed in 1994. NONE of these samples had violative residues.
IMPORTED surveillance samples were equally free of residues.
FDA's report indicated that of the 5,032 samples collected no
violative residues were found in nearly 97% of the samples. This
compared favorably to the 97% in 1993 and 96% in 1994 rates, FDA
noted. Of all of the imported samples, fruits and vegetables
accounted for 85% according to the report.
Domestic surveillance samples came from all 50 states and Puerto
Rico. States in which agriculture is a major industry had
proportionately more samples collected.
Ninety-four countries had food shipment samples taken and
analzyed. Mexico was the source of the greatest number of
samples.