Chemical Residues: Incidence in the United States

Abstract

In this chapter, the use of the term residue relates primarily to the trace amounts of materials found in foods of various origins resulting from the application of chemicals during production. In order to focus on the type of sampling and the underlying statistical basis, the approach used for estimating the incidence of residues in animal products is presented in this chapter. The primary focus of the enforcement analytical work was related to antibiotic/antimicrobial assays and accounted for >99% of the samples. In sheep the incidence is 2.2%, approximately 2.5 times that reported in 2004, while in goats the 2005 frequency is 43% of that of 2004. A common acrylamide-forming reaction occurs when naturally occurring sugars react with asparagine at elevated temperatures. The most important point to be made is that acrylamide is considered a potential carcinogen and that the levels found in foods can be reduced during food preparation. The administration of the pesticide regulatory system is quite complex. Pesticide residues were not detected in 62.7% of domestic and 71.8% of imported samples. Of those samples, 2.4% of domestic and 6.1% of imported samples had violative levels. The problems with the U.S. food supplies are not the overall-occurring chemical residues but more likely the wide variety of bacteriological residues occurring from processing and distribution systems.