Pesticides: Need To Enhance FDA's Ability To Protect the Public From Illegal Residues

Highlights

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) activities to protect the public from exposure to illegal pesticide residues in the domestic food supply under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, specifically its: (1) monitoring of the nation's domestic food supply for illegal residues; and (2) efforts to prevent food containing illegal residues from reaching the market.

Recommendations

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter	Status	Comments
In view of the difficulties that FDA faces in trying to use existing authorities to prevent the marketing of domestic food containing illegal pesticide residues and the need to provide a strong deterrent against such shipments, Congress may wish to give FDA legislative authority to assess civil penalties against growers of such food when it is not removed from the marketplace.	Closed – Not Implemented	Two bills, (S. 2084 and H.R. 4362 were introduced in the 103rd Congress, but neither were enacted. No legislation that would implement this recommendation has been introduced in the 104th Congress.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Health and Human Services	The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Commissioner, FDA, to establish specific criteria for the level of testing that is required for continuous and periodic monitoring and require FDA laboratories to test in accordance with such criteria.	Closed – Implemented FDA stated that it plans to: (1) give more emphasis to headquarters-directed surveys; (2) increase the number of samples; (3) improve planning and evaluation of FDA sample coverage; and (4) expand FDA-state cooperative sampling. Without a complete review, GAO is not in a position to evaluate whether FDA has taken action that fully complies with the recommendation; GAO started a review of this area in late 1993 but it was terminated by the requesting committee with jurisdiction over the area.

Full Report

(59 pages)

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Topics

Agriculture and Food

Consumer protectionContaminated foodsEnvironmental policiesHealth hazardsPesticide regulationPesticidesProduct safetyPublic health legislationSafety regulationToxic substances