Pesticides in meat and dairy?

December 16, 2017 12:51 PM

In the 1990s, my biology prof told us that animal fat (in fish/meat/dairy/eggs) contains more pesticide residues than fresh produce. He explained that certain pesticides accumulate in the fatty tissues and are present in any foods containing animal fat. Since then, all the media focus has been on the Dirty Dozen. Where can I find a comparison of pesticide residues that includes animal products, not just fresh produce?
posted by Frenchy67 to Food & Drink (3 answers total)

Best answer: A search term you'll find useful, that describes that phenomenon, is bioaccumulation. One resource to explore is the Pesticide Action Network.
posted by Miko at 2:42 PM on December 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've used knowledge of this concept to focus on buying organic for high fat animal products, such as butter.
posted by metasarah at 4:16 PM on December 16, 2017

The USDA National Residue Program Red Book lists all the meat samples for the year for which the USDA has identified quantifiable accumulation of undesirable residues. While they screen for pesticides also, most of what they find is veterinary antibiotics, and detected in liver or kidney, where nasty things deposit, rather than the muscle that most people eat.

There is a variety of produce pesticide screening data posted on USDA and FDA web sites. It's hard to compare apples to oranges meat but I haven't seen much so far to indicate that pesticide residues are more concentrated in animal products than vegetables or fruits.
posted by grouse at 7:31 PM on December 16, 2017 [2 favorites]