The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published its annual Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program (PMP) report for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY 2023), providing an overview of pesticide levels in the U.S. food supply. The report summarizes findings from FDA testing of human and animal foods for 781 different pesticides and selected industrial compounds between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

Alongside the report, the FDA introduced the Pesticide Report Data Dashboard, a new interactive tool that allows users to explore tables, figures, and underlying data from the PMP report.

Key Findings: Human Food

The FY 2023 PMP report includes a total of 3,577 human food samples, including 1,003 domestic samples from 45 states and 2,574 import samples from 84 countries/economies.

No residues were detected in 39 percent of domestic samples and 39.2 percent of import samples.

Additionally, 97.2 percent of domestic samples and 86.5 percent of import samples met U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pesticide tolerance levels.

Plant Products/Byproducts and Whole and Ground Grains/Seeds were the commodity types with the greatest proportion of violative samples at 6.7 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.

FDA also highlighted imported human foods that may warrant special attention based on their high proportions of violative samples. The commodities were seaweed (100 percent), prickly pear (63.6 percent), plums/prunes (46.2 percent), radishes (34.6 percent), cilantro (34 percent), taro (33.3 percent), and rice (33 percent).

As in previous years, imported foods showed a higher violation rate than domestic foods, reflective of the agency’s risk-based approach to sampling. FDA targets products and countries with a history of violations or higher likelihood of pesticide residue issues, using data from past monitoring and foreign pesticide usage.

Key Findings: Animal Food

Of a total 224 animal food samples, 97 percent of 101 domestic samples and 97.6 of 123 import samples were compliant.

No residues were detected in 50.5 percent of domestic samples and 56.1 percent of import samples.

Glyphosate was the most frequently detected pesticide in animal foods, found in 34 samples, followed by malathion (30 samples).

Focused Sampling: Animal-Derived Foods

In FY 2023, FDA analyzed 95 samples of domestically produced animal-derived foods, including milk, shell eggs, honey, and game meat. No violative pesticide residues were detected, and 87.4 percent of samples contained no residues at all.

Only eggs and honey had detectable levels of pesticides, in 26.7 percent and 25 percent, respectively.