Today, the FDA made available its annual Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Report for Fiscal Year 2024, summarizing findings from FDA testing of human and animal foods for 781 different pesticides and selected industrial compounds from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024.
Companies that grow, produce or manufacture food products sold in the U.S. must comply with applicable Environmental Protection Agency and FDA regulations. To protect public health, the FDA's pesticide residue monitoring program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by EPA. If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue detected on a food exceeds any existing tolerance, or has no established tolerance, the FDA will take action as appropriate. Monitoring focuses on raw agricultural foods of dietary importance (i.e., foods that comprise the greater part of the U.S. diet and can most contribute to pesticide exposure in people) and foods consumed in large amounts by infants and young children.
For FY 2024, findings show that the levels of pesticide chemical residues in the U.S. food supply are generally in compliance with EPA pesticide tolerances.
Overall Findings
Human Food Samples: 3,528 total samples (893 domestic food samples from 46 states and 2,635 import food samples from 76 countries/economies).
- 98.2% of domestic samples and 84.4% of import samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 36.8% of domestic samples and 36.5% of import samples.
Historically, the violation rate for imported foods has been higher than for domestic foods, and the FY 2024 results continue that trend. This higher violation rate affirms the risk-based approach, which prioritizes for sampling, among other factors, imported food products that are more likely to contain violative pesticide chemical residues, and the countries more likely to export them. This may be based on past problem areas, findings from state and federal monitoring, and foreign pesticide usage data.
Animal Food Samples: 306 total samples (153 domestic food samples from 24 states and 153 import samples from 13 countries).
- 93.5% of domestic samples and 91.5% of import samples were compliant with federal regulations (below EPA tolerances).
- No pesticide chemical residues were detected in 47.1% of domestic samples and 42.5% of import samples.
Focused Sampling
In FY 2024, the FDA conducted pesticide analyses for the "Domestically Produced Animal-Derived Foods" assignment. The FDA collected and analyzed 110 samples of selected animal-derived domestic foods, consisting of 29 milk, 34 shell egg, 19 honey and 28 game meat samples. No violative pesticide chemical residues were found in any of these foods, and 93.6% of the samples contained no pesticide residues.
Pesticide Report Data Dashboard
FY 2024 pesticide monitoring data are available to view on the FDA Pesticide Report Data Dashboard, a data visualization tool that enables users to interact with the tables and figures presented in the report and more directly view the data underlying the summaries. The FDA developed the dashboard in 2025 to support the agency's commitment to transparency and enhancement of the food chemical safety program. The FDA plans to update the FDA Pesticide Report Data Dashboard next fiscal year to visualize multiple years of data.