U.S. Market Basket Study To Determine Residues of the Insecticide Chlorpyrifos

A market basket study was conducted to measure residues of the insecticide chlorpyrifos in samples of apples, applesauce, apple juice, fresh orange juice, tomatoes, peanut butter, whole milk, ground beef, and pork sausage collected during a 12-month period from 200 grocery stores across the United States. Approximately 90% of the samples contained no detectable levels of chlorpyrifos, and all residues detected were below tolerances, the legal limits for the United States. No values greater than the limit of quantitation (LOQ) were found in applesauce (LOQ = 0.008 ppm), apple juice (LOQ = 0.003 ppm), whole milk (LOQ = 0.006 ppm), ground beef (LOQ = 0.005 ppm), or pork sausage (LOQ = 0.007 ppm) samples. Only one fresh orange juice sample contained residues greater than the LOQ at 0.015 ppm. Only about 20% of the apples (maximum = 0.052 ppm), 20% of the tomato samples (maximum = 0.058 ppm), and 50% of the peanut butter samples (maximum = 0.021 ppm) contained quantifiable residues. Keywords: Chlorpyrifos; foo...