Pesticides in the total diet

Abstract

Since enactment of the Pesticides Chemicals Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1954 (Public Law 83-518), the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established, as of January 1, 1966, tolerances or exemptions from the requirement of a tolerance for 146 pesticide chemicals.¹ This includes some 2,690 individual tolerances or exemptions on specific raw agricultural commodities. Approximately 20 tolerances have been established for pesticide chemicals in processed foods under a sister amendment, the Food Additives Amendment of 1958 (Public Law 85-929). In addition, there are at the present time about 260 other pesticide chemicals registed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act on a “no-residue basis” for use on growing crops, agricultural premises, and stored foods and feeds, which could possibly result in residues in foods through misuse or by contributing to the “background level” of pesticides in soils, water, and the environment (see harris and cummings 1964).