Press Releases
Industry Response to Media Reports – Pesticide Residues
8/14/2009
NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
Regarding recent stories concerning pesticide residues, the California Tree Fruit Agreement would like to communicate to our customers and consumers some important information.
First, these articles convey that any findings of pesticide residues pose a risk. However, we have had independent toxicologists examine the residue findings of the USDA as well. Regarding peaches for example, Dr. Robert Krieger, a toxicologist with the Personal Chemical Exposure Program, University of California, states that if you consider the highest residues found from the past three years, a child, a teen or an adult would have to eat 400 to nearly 16,000 servings a day to reach the science based no effect level. The no effect level simply means that you still won’t see any negative health effects, even after consuming those extreme amounts of fruit.
It should also be noted that the USDA Pesticide Data Program’s executive summary clearly states that over 99% of the foods analyzed did not contain residues above the safety tolerances established by the Environmental Protection Agency. The link to the program information is http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5074338
Consumers should also know that farmers must follow over 70 laws and regulations when applying a pesticide in California. In fact, California has the most stringent laws and regulations governing pesticide use in the nation. These laws are not only protective of consumers, but also farm employees. Further, to ensure full compliance with these laws and regulations, the California Tree Fruit Agreement regularly conducts random pesticide residue testing on peaches, plums and nectarines. These results show that 99.9% of all samples pulled over the last four years showed no detectable pesticide residues at all or levels that were well below those considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Finally, most health experts agree that the most important thing is that consumers eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables everyday regardless of whether they are organic, to get the most nutritional value from their diets. Recent studies have concluded there are no nutritional differences between conventional or organically grown produce. And, FDA clearly states that you can reduce and often eliminate pesticide residues if they are present on fresh fruits and vegetables by washing them with cold or warm tap water.