U.S. Food and Drug Administration monitoring of pesticide residues in infant foods and adult foods eaten by infants/children.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration uses 3 approaches to monitor pesticide residues in foods: regulatory monitoring, incidence/level monitoring, and the Total Diet Study. The results of monitoring infant foods and adult foods that may be eaten by infants/children under these 3 approaches are presented. Under regulatory monitoring, which is performed to enforce tolerances set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during fiscal years 1985-1991, over 10,000 such domestic and imported food samples were collected and analyzed, and under the Total Diet Study, in which pesticide residue intakes are estimated in foods prepared for consumption, the food items in 27 market baskets were analyzed. Under incidence/level monitoring, which is complementary to regulatory monitoring, over 4000 analyses were performed on infant foods and adult foods eaten by children. Fewer than 50 of the 10,000 regulatory samples had violative residues; nearly all of those were residues for which there was no tolerance for the particular commodity/pesticide combination. Under incidence/level monitoring and the Total Diet Study, the levels of pesticide residues found in infant foods and adult foods eaten by children were well below tolerances set by EPA.