Subject: PANUPS: Residues on imported foods

From: Pesticide Action Network North America Reg Ctr <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 10:06:36 PST

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PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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IMPORTED FOODS WITH ILLEGAL PESTICIDE RESIDUES ENTERING US 
FOOD SUPPLY

December 23, 1992

A recent report by the US General Accounting Office (GAO), the 
investigative arm of the US Congress, found that despite a program that test 
a sampling of  food imports for pesticide residues,  some foods imported 
into the United States contain prohibited pesticide residues.  According to 
the GAO, "shipments of imported food that FDA (the Food and Drug 
Administration) identifies as adulterated with pesticides still make their 
way to US grocery shelves." Examples of foods contaminated with 
unacceptable pesticides that FDA detected at US ports in 1990 include squash 
containing residues of BHC and DDT, (pesticides for which all US uses have 
been cancelled)  snow peas containing EBDC fungicides, (which are not 
registered for use on peas) and spinach containing  the fungicide 
chlorothalonil (which is not registered for use on spinach.)

FDA's program of testing a sampling of food imports for illegal pesticide 
residues began in 1973.   In 1990, approximately 0.8% of incoming food was 
tested for illegal pesticide residues; of these, 4.3% of the foods were found to
be pesticide-contaminated.  Although the volume of foods tested has 
increased since the program's inception,  the rate of violation has decreased.
Total food imports to the US have increased 140% during the intervening 
years, though the number of FDA staff dedicated to monitoring incoming 
food shipments has only increased 2% 

FDA's residue testing program has not been successful in keeping  
contaminated foods away from US consumers.   GAO
 reports that in fiscal years 1988, 1989, and 1990,  food importers did not 
properly dispose of 336 of the 989 imported shipments identified as being 
adulterated with pesticides.  Records kept by FDA and by US Customs 
confirm that at least some of these adulterated foods enter the US food 
distribution system.

Of the identified 336 problem shipments, in this period  62 were distributed 
in the US as a result of errors by FDA or Customs. The remaining 274 were 
distributed illegally.  In 51 of the illegally distributed imports,  importers 
claimed that the shipment was subsequently destroyed or sent back to the 
country of origin, but no required documentation of disposal was available.

 Over 64% of the illegally distributed food shipments in this study came 
from only 10 importers. Nearly half of the improper distributors  had been 
placed on "automatic detention status" due to a prior record of pesticide 
adulteration in the same product, but the legal safeguards were not 
sufficient to keep contaminated foods out of circulation.

GAO believes that  there is limited incentive for repeat offenders to comply 
with the laws regulating pesticide residues.The main enforcement tool to 
deter importers from selling pesticide-contaminated food  is a bond 
agreement between Customs and the importer.  Under this agreement, the 
importer promises to pay all duties, taxes, tariffs, and charges, to retain 
control over the shipment until its acceptability is determined, and to 
dispose of the shipment properly if it is found to be unacceptable.   
However, the damages are not high enough under this system to prevent a 
food importer from profiting from the sale of these shipments, even after 
paying the bond,  and importers often can avoid, postpone, or reduce 
damages paid.

 As the federal laws governing releasing adulterated food onto the US 
market provide only for criminal penalties, FDA must rely on the US 
Department of Justice to enforce the act.  This also hampers enforcement, 
according to FDA attorneys,  because these cases are given low priority for 
prosecution.  GAO suggests that authorizing FDA to enforce compliance as a 
civil matter with administrative penalties would make it easier to pursue 
legal action against repeat offenders. 

It is clear, from this report by GAO, that monitoring incoming foods for 
residues of pesticides is neither efficient nor effective in protecting the 
public from dangerous levels of contamination.  Only a tiny fraction (less 
than 1%) of  food imports can be monitored given current FDA staff 
allocations, and the penalties for detection of unacceptable residue levels do 
little to stop these contaminated foods from entering the market.  In the 
long run, the safety of the food supply, in the US and other countries, can 
only be ensured by promoting safer, more sustainable agricultural practices,  
rather than by end-product monitoring.

SOURCE: "Pesticides: Adulterated US Foods are Reaching US Grocery 
Shelves." US General Accounting Office, September 1992.  Document 
#RCED-92-205.  Single copies of any GAO report are available at no charge.  
To order, write to US General Accounting Office, Box 6015, Gaithersburg, 
MD, 20877, phone (202) 275-6241, fax (301) 258-4066.  Monthly and annual 
catalogues of GAO reports and testimony are also available.
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This information is provided by the Pesticide Action Network North 
America Updates Service (PANUPS), a pesticide-related news service from 
the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North American Regional Center. 
Updates are posted weekly on EcoNet in the "en.pesticides," 
"en.agriculture" and other appropriate electronic conferences, and 
distributed worldwide across the APC computer network. PANUPS is also 
posted in the Public Conference on RTK NET, on GeoNet in the 
PESTICIDES-BBS bulletin board, on FidoNet in The Ecology Network, on 
the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SANET) on BitNet, and on PENpages 
agriculture information service at Penn State Univ. Hard-copy compilations 
of these updates are also available. For more information about PAN 
activities and publications, contact: PAN NA RC, 965 Mission Street #514, 
San Francisco, CA 94103. Tel: (415) 541-9140. Fax: (415) 541-9253. Telex: 
156283472 PANNA. E-mail address on EcoNet: [email-masked]
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