The USDA Pesticide Data Program (PDP) is a national pesticide residue monitoring program which collects and analyzes approximately 10,000 samples each year and approximately 450 pesticides using multi-residue analysis methods. Their annual report includes summaries of pesticides residues as well as presumptive tolerance violations of pesticides on fresh and processed commodities. The tolerance violations include residues quantified by the PDP that are greater than the established tolerance (MRL) on that commodity as well as detections in commodities for which a tolerance level has not been established. There is an apparent increase in the reported potential violations over the last few years. The percentage of instances where evaluated by determining which below 0.01 ppm, and what the major crop contributors were. In 2019 there were 1,586 reported presumptive tolerance violations and the major contributors were basil, cilantro, mustard greens, and rice. About 50% of the violations had residues that were less than 0.01 ppm. This was the first-time basil has been evaluated in the PDP assessments, and it contributed almost half of the presumptive violations. Basil is listed in two US EPA crop subgroups, 19A and 25A where tolerances are not typically established. This led to 80% of the basil violations being due to no tolerances having been established. Cilantro, which accounted for 229 violations, is also listed in two crop groups, 19A (fresh herb) and 4-16A (leafy green). The 976 presumptive tolerance violations for basil and cilantro were not consistently evaluated against the leafy green crop group tolerances and 568 of these violations had a tolerance for either the leafy greens crop group or a similar herb.

PDP 2019 assessment: Understanding the recent increase in potential tolerance violations

ACS Fall 2021

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