US residue tests confirm food safety

The latest annual monitoring of pesticide residues under the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) confirms that “food does not pose a safety concern based upon pesticide residues”, the USDA points out. Monitoring of a range of commodities in 2010 found that tolerances were exceeded in 0.25% of 11,644 samples tested and 4.6% contained residues for which no tolerance was established. Those figures compare with overall tolerance violation rates of 4.2% in 2008 and 3% in 2009 ( Agrow No 617, p 14).