Articles Tagged with ''pesticide residues''

Based on an analysis of seven years of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA's) Pesticide Data Program, watchdog group Consumer Reports is warning that it found pesticide residues to pose “significant risks” in 20 percent of foods analyzed.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued an order regarding maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides in spices and culinary herbs, in alignment with Codex Alimentarius guidelines and the MRLs adopted by the U.S., the EU, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand.

PFAS are sometimes used in pesticides as active substances or co-formulants. An analysis of EU pesticide residue monitoring data by Pesticide Action Network Europe shows that the average proportion of produce containing PFAS pesticide residues in the EU has nearly tripled over the last decade.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has published its Dirty Dozen list for 2024, describing the 12 fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticide residues, alongside its Clean Fifteen list, which contains the 15 commodities with the lowest amounts of pesticide residue.

In a new study, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has detected the pesticide chlormequat in four out of five people tested. After allowing the chemical on imported foods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule in 2023 that would allow chlormequat to be applied to barley, oat, triticale, and wheat crops.

FDA recently published revisions to one guidance for industry and withdrew another. Specifically, FDA released revisions to the Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCHF) Draft Guidance, and withdrew its guidance on chlorpyrifos residues due to the U.S. Court of Appeals voiding EPA's ban on food tolerances for the pesticide chemical.

USDA’s Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary for 2022 shows that more than 99 percent of products sampled through PDP had residues below tolerances set by EPA. However, testing for persistent environmental contaminants that are no longer used as pesticides in the U.S. showed the presence of certain banned chemicals in some foods.

A proposed strategy from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aims to improve the agency’s screening process for the harmful effects that pesticides and agricultural chemicals may have on the human endocrine system, starting with immediately requiring additional data to be submitted by the manufacturers of certain high-priority chemicals. 

The added microbial risks that come with eating more plant-based foods can usually be mitigated by adjusting recipes or process parameters, although hazard considerations regarding the chemical safety of a diet richer in plant-based materials is more complex. Also, introducing reusable packaging may come with its own set of issues.

A federal appeals court has overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2021 ban on all uses of the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos in food crops.