Are pesticide residues dangerous? In this post, we look at pesticide residue safety.
What are pesticides?
A pesticide is a broad term used to describe natural and synthetic chemicals (remember, everything is a chemical) that can harm or kill organisms, including insects, invasive weeds, fungi, rodents, bacteria, and more.
What is pesticide residue?
Pesticide residue is the small amount of leftover pesticides from the growing and harvest process.
Pesticide residue still on the produce will be at or below the established safety threshold, ensuring it’s safe for even vulnerable populations to consume.
Do organic fruits, vegetables, and grains contain pesticide residue?
Yes. Pesticides are used in conventional and organic farming practices to control harmful insects, fungi, and other pests from causing crop damage.
Organic farming relies on naturally-derived pesticides and some synthetically-derived products like pheromones and other farming practices like crop rotation and limiting monoculture to protect crops (1,2).
Conventional farming relies on synthetically or naturally derived pesticides and products to ensure crop growth and harvest and other best practices like crop rotation.
Is pesticide residue harmful to my health?
Pesticide residues will be at or below safe consumption levels, even for vulnerable populations. Therefore, it’s not harmful to your health to eat foods that may contain pesticide residues.
Do I need to clean my fruits and vegetables before using them?
Yes. Regardless of pesticide residue concerns, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) both recommend cleaning fruits and vegetables under running water or in conjunction with scrubbing produce with a clean brush to remove superficial dirt before consuming or cooking raw produce (1,2).
What can I do to remove pesticide residues and other residues?
There are a few simple techniques you can follow that will help remove superficial dirt as well as pesticide residues:
- Peeling and trimming: Peeling and/or trimming the outer layer of skin or leaves on fruits and vegetables will help reduce pesticide residues.
- Rinsing: Rinsing produce in warm water for at least one minute or longer will reduce pesticide presence on produce.
- Soaking: Soaking produce in warm water is one of the easiest ways to reduce pesticide residues.
- Combination: Using one or more of the above techniques will help you remove dirt and pesticide residues.
Will I have adverse health outcomes if I don’t remove all of the residues?
No, pesticide residues are at or below safe levels before any additional cleaning steps. You will further remove any dirt, dust, or residues on the produce by following the above steps.
Will I be able to remove 100% of the pesticide residue on all produce?
A new paper shows it’s nearly impossible to remove 100% of pesticide residues from rinsing alone. Even with rinsing, the research suggests that they will be present at less than 1 ppb.
A part per million is a small measurement representing one part in a whole entity of one million equal parts. For example, 7 drops of water in a 60-gallon bathtub is 1 part per million (ppm).
Ted Ed put together a fantastic video helping to explain parts per million
It’s an even smaller number when we talk about parts per billion (ppb) or parts per trillion (ppt). While 1 part per billion or trillion sounds like it would be a larger quantity than 1 part per million (ppm), it is a much small quantity by a much larger magnitude.
For example:
1 ppm = 0.000001 of 1
1 ppb = 0.000000001 of 1
1 ppt = 0.000000000001 of 1
The best technique to remove as much pesticide residue as possible is by peeling the outer layer of the skin of your produce.
Should I wash my fruits and vegetables with soap or detergent to remove pesticide residues?
No. The FDA and the USDA do NOT advise washing produce with detergents or soaps, as these could be absorbed by or linger on the produce. Soaps and detergents have neither been approved nor labeled by the FDA for washing food and/or consumption (1,2).
Should I wash my fruits and vegetables in a solution to remove pesticide residues?
While you can reduce pesticide residues using a soaking solution such as vinegar and water or salt and water, it’s not advisable. There’s a small risk that the chemical reaction between the pesticides and the solution could produce potentially harmful compounds.
While this link hasn’t been established or shown to cause harm, it’s easy and effective to use plain water to wash, rinse, and soak your produce.
What’s the risk to my health from pesticide residue on produce? Should I stop consuming produce?
Pesticide residues are not known to cause adverse health outcomes. Using the outlined methods to reduce pesticide residue will not make your foods healthier. However, rinsing and preparing produce can help reduce your risk of other food-borne pathogens.
You should continue to consume produce. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, even those with pesticide residues, has been linked to significantly lower overall mortality and reduced risk of major diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease (1,2).
Additionally, we do not have the agricultural capacity to feed the population without the use of pesticides.
The good news.
Even though produce with pesticide residues is usually safe to eat, it’s easy and affordable to clean your fruits and veggies to remove any lingering traces without affecting their quality. Taking a little extra time to do this can give you peace of mind. Plus, with advances in technology, we’re getting better at understanding pesticide safety and improving how we grow our food. Tools like drones and precision farming techniques are already helping farmers use pesticides more efficiently, which means fewer chemicals and healthier crops for everyone.
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