FDA Reports High Levels of Compliance with Pesticide Limits in Food for FY 2024
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published its Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Report for Fiscal Year 2024, finding that pesticide residues measured in the U.S. food supply were generally in compliance with tolerances established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
From October 1, 2023–September 30, 2024, FDA tested human and animal foods for approximately 780 pesticides and selected industrial compounds. FDA is responsible for enforcing EPA-established pesticide tolerances, or maximum allowable residue levels, for domestic foods shipped in interstate commerce and foods imported into the U.S.
FDA also updated its Pesticide Report Data Dashboard with FY 2024 monitoring data. The visualization tool allows users to interact with tables and figures from the annual report and examine data underlying FDA’s summaries.
Pesticide Residues in Human and Animal Foods
For its regulatory monitoring program, FDA analyzed 3,528 human food samples, comprising 893 domestic samples collected from 46 states and 2,635 import samples from 76 countries and economies.
Overall, 98.2 percent of domestic human food samples and 84.4 percent of import samples complied with federal standards. No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 36.8 percent of domestic samples and 36.5 percent of import samples.
FDA noted that imported human foods have historically had a higher pesticide violation rate than domestic foods. The agency said the FY 2024 findings supported its risk-based sampling approach, which targets imported commodities and countries more likely to be associated with violative pesticide residues. Factors considered in targeting imports included past problem areas, state and federal monitoring findings, and foreign pesticide usage data.
FDA also analyzed 306 animal food samples, evenly divided between 153 domestic and 153 import samples. Among animal foods, 93.5 percent of domestic samples and 91.5 percent of import samples complied with federal standards. No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 47.1 percent of domestic samples and 42.5 percent of import samples.
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Focused Sampling Finds No Violative Residues in Tested Animal-Derived Foods
As part of its “Domestically Produced Animal-Derived Foods” assignment, FDA analyzed 110 samples comprising 29 milk, 34 shell egg, 19 honey, and 28 game meat samples.
FDA found no violative pesticide residues in any of the samples, and 93.6 percent contained no detectable pesticide residues.
