MONITORING OF DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED APPLES AND RICE BY THE US FOOD-AND-DRUG-ADMINISTRATION PESTICIDE PROGRAM

In 1993-94, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a st atistically based study of pesticide residues in domestic and imported fresh apples and processed rice. For apples, 769 domestic and 1062 im ported samples were collected and analyzed; 85% of the domestic and 86 % of the imported samples had detectable residues. Benomyl, a widely u sed fungicide, was found with greatest frequency in domestic apples, w hile diphenylamine was found most often in imported apples. One domest ic and 4 imported samples contained violative residues of pesticides f or which there are no U.S. tolerances on apples. The statistically wei ghted (by domestic packer throughput or import shipment size) violatio n rates for domestic and imported apples were 0.30% (0.13 unweighted) and 0.41% (0.38 unweighted), respectively. For rice, 598 domestic and 612 imported samples were collected and analyzed; 56% of the domestic and 12% of the imported samples had detectable residues, Malathion had the greatest frequency of occurrence in both groups of rice. Eight do mestic and 9 imported samples were violative, all as a result of use o f pesticides for which there are no U.S. tolerances on rice. The stati stically weighted violation rates for domestic and imported rice were 0.43% (1.3 unweighted) and 1.1% (1.5 unweighted), respectively. Result s of the statistically based study show that, as in FDA's regulatory m onitoring, the levels of most pesticide residues found in these 2 comm odities are generally well below U.S. tolerances, and few violative re sidues are found.