FDA Releases FY 2022 Pesticide Residue Monitoring Report
Constituent Update
September 4, 2024
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made available its annual Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Report for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 2022), summarizing findings from FDA testing of human and animal foods for 757 different pesticides and selected industrial compounds from October 1, 2021, through September 30, 2022.
Companies that grow and produce foods and manufacture products intended for use as food that are sold in the U.S. are responsible for following applicable Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and FDA regulations. To protect public health, the FDA’s pesticide residue monitoring program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with the pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the EPA. If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue on a food is over the tolerance, or when a pesticide is found and there is no tolerance established, the FDA can take action. For FY 2022, findings show that the levels of pesticide chemical residues in the U.S. food supply are generally in compliance with EPA pesticide tolerances.
Sample collection and analysis in FY 2022 was moderately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 35% fewer human food samples and 37% fewer animal food samples were collected in FY 2022 compared with FY 2019, the most recent year not impacted by the global pandemic. Sample collection and analysis increased in FY 2022 relative to the FY 2020 and FY 2021 collections.
Overall Findings
Human Food Samples: 2,800 total samples (731 domestic food samples from 41 states and 2,069 imported food samples from 81 countries/economies).
- 96.2% of domestic samples and 89.5% of imported samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 42.7% of domestic samples and 44.6% of imported samples.
Historically, the violation rate for imported foods is higher than for domestic foods, and the FY 2022 report results continue that trend. The higher violation rate affirms the risk-based approach of targeting imported food products that are more likely to contain violative pesticide chemical residues, and the countries more likely to export them. In determining which products to sample, the FDA may consider past problem areas, findings from state and federal monitoring, and foreign pesticide usage data.
Animal Food Samples: 230 total samples (113 domestic food samples from 26 states and 117 imported samples from 13 countries).
- 95.6% of domestic samples and 100% of imported samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 38.1% of domestic samples and 50.4% of imported samples.
Focused Sampling
In FY 2022, the FDA conducted pesticide analyses for the “Domestically Produced Animal-Derived Foods” assignment. The FDA collected and analyzed 96 samples of selected animal-derived domestic foods, consisting of 36 milk, 30 shell egg, 15 honey, and 15 game meat samples. No violative pesticide chemical residues were found in 99% of the animal-derived foods, and 90.6% of the samples contained no pesticide residues.