Pesticides in food may be higher than FDA says

Abstract

Produce sold in the U.S. from both domestic and imported sources is almost twice as likely to be contaminated with pesticides at illegal levels than the Food & Drug Administration has reported. This is the charge of a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit policy and research group, which analyzed FDA's own data. EWG's study, Forbidden Fruit: Illegal Pesticides in the U.S. Food Supply, found records of residues of 66 pesticides on 42 fruit and vegetable crops sold in the U.S. during 1992 and 1993 at levels higher than legally allowed. In 13% of these violations, the pesticides could not even be applied legally to the crop on which they were found. In the other 87% of the violations, the pesticides could be applied legally, but residue levels exceeded legal limits. A disturbing number of fruit and vegetable growers routinely break the law, says Richard Wiles, EWG vice president and ...