FDA Releases FY 2023 Pesticide Residue Monitoring Report
Constituent Update
December 22, 2025
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made available its annual Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Report for Fiscal Year 2023, summarizing findings from FDA testing of human and animal foods for 781 different pesticides and selected industrial compounds from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023.
Along with the publication of the FY 2023 report, the FDA is also launching the FDA Pesticide Report Data Dashboard, a new data visualization tool that enables users to interact with the tables and figures in the report and view the data underlying the summaries. The FDA developed the dashboard to support the agency’s commitment to transparency and enhancement of the food chemical safety program.
Companies that grow, produce, or manufacture food products sold in the U.S. must comply with applicable Environmental Protection Agency 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 pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the EPA. If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue detected on a food exceeds any existing tolerance, or has no established tolerance, the FDA may take regulatory action.
For FY 2023, findings show that the levels of pesticide chemical residues in the U.S. food supply are generally in compliance with EPA pesticide tolerances.
Overall Findings
Human Food Samples: 3,577 total samples (1,003 domestic food samples from 45 states and 2,574 import food samples from 84 countries/economies).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 39% of domestic samples and 39.2% of import samples.
- 97.2% of domestic samples and 86.5% of import samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
Historically, the violation rate for import foods is higher than for domestic foods, and the FY 2023 results continue that trend. This 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: 224 total samples (101 domestic food samples from 23 states and 123 import samples from 14 countries).
- 97% of domestic samples and 97.6% of import samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 50.5% of domestic samples and 56.1% of import samples.
Focused Sampling
In FY 2023, the FDA conducted pesticide analyses for the “Domestically Produced Animal-Derived Foods” assignment. The FDA collected and analyzed 95 samples of selected animal-derived domestic foods, consisting of 38 milk, 30 shell egg, 16 honey, and 11 game meat samples. No violative pesticide chemical residues were found in any of the animal-derived foods, and 87.4% of the samples contained no pesticide residues.