Fund the state's work in support of the pesticide data program (PDP)

The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service awarded a Cooperative Agreement to the California Department of Food & Agriculture for $1.092 million on January 1, 2026, under the Market Protection and Promotion program (CFDA 10.163) to support the Pesticide Data Program.

California will collect food samples—focusing on those most frequently consumed by infants and children and specified in the PDP Project Plan—and ship them to assigned laboratories on the established schedule. The state laboratory will perform chemical analyses on the assigned samples for pesticide residues, including parent compounds and metabolites. Results undergo quality assurance review by the state quality assurance officer and are transmitted to PDP as an electronic dataset. All work follows standard operating procedures available on the PDP website. The sampling operation's deliverable is providing requested samples to laboratories; the laboratory's deliverable is providing pesticide residue data to PDP.

The data serves the Environmental Protection Agency for dietary risk assessments, the Food and Drug Administration for regulatory enforcement of pesticide residue limits in food, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service for potential use in trade negotiations, and American consumers evaluating food safety.

Work is performed in California with a period of performance from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026.

The state will collect food samples in their state and ship the samples to the assigned laboratories per the established schedule. The foods, which focus on those most frequently consumed by infants and children, are specified in the current PDP project plan that is posted on the PDP website. The state laboratory will perform chemical analyses on the assigned samples for pesticide residues, including parent compounds and metabolites. The results of the residue analysis will be reviewed by the state quality assurance officer and sent to PDP as an electronic dataset. All work will be conducted according to standard operating procedures that are available on the PDP website. The deliverable of the sampling operation is to provide the requested samples to the laboratories, and the deliverable of the laboratory is to provide the pesticide residue data to PDP. The intended beneficiaries include the environmental protection agency, who uses the data to prepare dietary risk assessments for pesticides; the food and drug administration who uses the routine monitoring data from PDP to inform their regulatory enforcement of established limits of pesticide residues in food; the USDA foreign agricultural service who may use the data in trade negotiations; and american consumers who use the data to help ensure their confidence in the food they purchase for their families.