The FDA pesticides monitoring program

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carries out an extensive program to monitor foods for pesticide residues. The 2 main objectives of the program are to enforce tolerances established by the Environmental Protection Agency for pesticide residues on foods and feeds and to determine the incidence and level of pesticide residues in the food supply. Because of the wide diversity of pesticide/commodity combinations encountered, FDA uses a number of different approaches to achieve effective consumer protection. The components of the FDA Pesticides Monitoring Program and the strategy used in its development are described.