Less Than Two Percent of Food Violates Pesticide Residue Standards

Every year, the FDA tests food for pesticide residues that violate the limits allowed by the EPA.  The FDA enforces those standards in both domestically-produced food as well as imported food.  As late as the fiscal year 2015, the FDA found that most food was well within the allowable standards, with domestic food outperforming imported food.

The FDA analyzed 6,000 samples of food, with quite a bit more of the samples from imported foods because they typically have higher residues than domestic foods do.  The foods came from 111 countries and 39 states, as well as Washington D.C. and U.S. territories.  More than 98% of domestic foods and 90% of imported foods were compliant. 50% of domestic foods and 57 percent of imported foods had zero pesticide residue. That means less than two percent of domestic food and 10% of imported food violated EPA standards.

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