Pesticides: What's on my Food

Using whatsonmyfood.org, I looked up the pesticides that could have been present in one of my meals yesterday. I ate at Gen Korean BBQ for lunch and had rice, beef, green onion, bell peppers, corn, and zucchini. The food items with the most number of potential pesticide residues were sweet bell pepper (53), green onion (31), and rice (15). Just seeing the number of pesticides that I could have been exposed to in just one meal makes me feel nauseated. Among the pesticide residues, every toxin was present...carcinogens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, developmental or reproductive toxins, and bee toxins. This information is disgusting and overwhelming. After this, I may consider eating out less and cooking at home more. I can limit my exposure to these harmful toxins by buying organic and ensuring proper food preparation. In terms of public health, we absolutely need policy to regulate what is being used on our food. Just like with the safety of personal care products available to consumers where I assumed ingredients were tested and deemed safe before they were allowed on the market, I assumed the same of food. So, as we work towards and until we have good policy, the public health community can raise awareness of the absent policy and guidelines around the use of pesticides on food and teach people to make healthier choices like buying organic or choosing conventional foods that have lower pesticide residues.