Foods Meet FDA Pesticide Residue Standards That May Be Badly Out Of Date

The FDA reported that almost all domestic food, and 90 percent of imported food, it had tested was free of pesticides residues. Foods tested included almonds, fish, milk, soybeans, apples, cabbage, etc. Pesticide chemical residues were higher than federal tolerance levels in less than two percent – 15 out of 835 – of domestic food samples and less than 10 percent of import samples. However, the FDA tolerance levels may be too low, since they are usually set for healthy adult males, and they are years out of date anyway. They should be higher for pregnant women and children, according to the Pesticide Action Network, which advocates buying organic foods when possible.