Bailee Henderson

FDA’s Human Foods Program specifically would receive a significant increase in funding compared to the previous fiscal year (FY), including $25 million to help address chemical contaminants and additives like PFAS, toxic heavy metals, and GRAS ingredients.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses the Environmental Working Group’s 2026 “Dirty Dozen” list of the most “pesticide-contaminated produce,” including ongoing debate over the list’s methodology and its relevance to food safety and public health.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently published the findings from several food sampling and testing assignments for microbiological and chemical contaminants across a range of food categories. In general, the results were satisfactory.

Arguing that states’ authority to require pesticide health warnings is critical to filling gaps in EPA oversight and risk communication, a coalition has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Monsanto v. Durnell, in which Monsanto (now Bayer), the maker of glyphosate-based Roundup, seeks to strike down that authority. 

EPA has announced its sixth Contaminant Candidate List, which includes PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, disinfection byproducts, and other chemicals and microbes. Concurrently, HHS unveiled its Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics (STOMP) initiative to address and understand microplastics in the human body.

Redacted details include the importer of the implicated mangoes, the country in which the mangoes were grown, and the number and names of states in which outbreak cases were reported.

Medical researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that adults who ate the most ultra-processed foods (UPFs) had a “statistically significant and clinically important” 47 percent higher risk of heart attack or stroke than those who ate the least.

The delays give the agency time to respond to comments made on the final orders approving beetroot red and spirulina extract for use as color additives in human foods. However, FDA stands by its determinations that the colorants are safe for their intended uses.

The Environmental Working Group’s 2026 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce highlights PFAS pesticides for the first time. Although EWG recently updated its methodology, scientists argue it still does not consider key exposure science and risk assessment principles, therefore misleading consumers about the health risks of conventionally grown produce.

Researchers developed a quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) framework that evaluates the public health, environmental, and economic trade-offs of microbiological sampling plans. They suggested microbiological sampling may be most useful when risk-based or as a verification tool.