What is done to keep pesticides out of food?
As a part of the food tolerance setting process, EPA also determines how close to harvest that a pesticide may be applied to insure that residues in the raw agricultural product, or processed foods containing that product, will be below tolerance. For each pesticide and crop the EPA has established a pre-harvest interval (PHI), which may restrict pesticide use from a few days up to weeks before harvest. Many pesticides are not applied close to harvest, and may never result in food residues. In a recent national survey by USDA, using methods that test for over 100 commonly used pesticides, 35% of all fruits and vegetables tested had no detectable pesticide residues. Together, EPA and USDA have pledged to develop incentives to reduce pesticide use and to encourage the use of safer pest control practices which rely heavily of integrated pest management (IPM) in which pesticides may often play a minor role. As a requirement of the current Farm Bill, USDA has proposed national standards for
