Data Show U.S. Food Supply is Safest in the World

June 28, 2016

Laboratory testing of foods in the general U.S. diet has once again shown that the current “system of checks and balances provides Americans with the safest food supply in the world.”

This conclusion appears in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report on tests of a wide variety of foods conducted in specialized facilities across the nation. One of the laboratories involved in the evaluation is the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Chemical Residue Laboratory in Tallahassee.

The report, based upon testing completed in 2014, is the 24^th Annual Summary of the Pesticide Data Program. Under federal law, the USDA oversees annual laboratory assessments of pesticide residues in the U.S. food supply.

Some 2 million samples of fresh and processed foods were examined. More than 99 percent of the items sampled contained no pesticide residues that posed risks to human health.

Laboratory methodologies used for the study “are geared to detect the lowest possible levels of pesticide residues,” according to the report.

For more information, visit www.ams.usda.gov.