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

The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service awarded the State of California Department of Pesticide a cooperative agreement worth $763,109 on January 1, 2026, under the Market Protection and Promotion program (CFDA 10.163) to support the Pesticide Data Program.

The state will collect food samples—focusing on those most frequently consumed by infants and children—from within California and ship them to assigned laboratories on an established schedule. The state laboratory will perform chemical analyses on the assigned samples to detect pesticide residues, including parent compounds and metabolites. The state's quality assurance officer will review the residue analysis results and transmit them to PDP as an electronic dataset. All work follows standard operating procedures published on the PDP website. The primary deliverable is provision of the requested samples to the laboratories.

Performance runs from January 1 through December 31, 2026, with work conducted in California. The data generated supports dietary risk assessments by the Environmental Protection Agency, regulatory enforcement of pesticide residue limits by the Food and Drug Administration, trade negotiations by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, and consumer confidence in food safety.

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 receiving 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. 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.