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The Organic Center Critical Issue Report Page
March 2008 Pesticide Dietary Risks 33
APPENDIX 1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Pesticide Data Program (PDP)
The U.S. Congress funded the “Pesticide Data Program” (PDP) in order to improve the
accuracy of pesticide dietary risk assessments carried out by the U.S. EPA. The program
is carried out by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The PDP focuses on the foods
consumed most heavily by children and food is tested, to the extent possible, “as eaten”
(Agricultural Market Service 2004). For example, banana and orange samples are tested
without the peel; processed foods are tested as they come out of a can, jar or freezer bag.
Since its inception the PDP has tested nearly 250,000 samples of the 20-odd foods
consumed most frequently by children: milk, apples, apple juice, pears, peaches, grapes,
oranges, bananas, peas, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, and strawberries have been in
and out of the program two or three times. Less commonly consumed foods like nectarines
and cranberries have also been tested.
In general, the more residues found in one round of PDP testing for a given food, the more
likely that food will be added again to the program. About one-quarter of the samples in a
given year are processed foods and juices. Appendix A in each annual PDP summary report
presents the history of PDP testing by commodity, for both fresh and processed foods.
Some 300 to 800 samples are tested of each fresh or processed food, although as few
as 120 samples have been run of some foods. The sample design strives to reflect the
composition of the food supply in terms of the geographic origin of food. The number of
domestic versus imported samples is roughly proportional to their respective share of annual
consumption.
The USDA also records information on any market claims made on a given sample of food.
Possible claims include “organic,” “IPM-grown,” “No Detectable Residues” or “pesticide free.”
Each market claim is supposed to be sampled roughly in proportion to their occurrence in
retail market channels. As a result, PDP results allow comparisons to be made of the
frequency and levels of pesticide residues in domestic versus imported foods, across food
groups, as well as by market claim.