Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the volume of apple juice concentrate the United States imports; and (2) the methodology and testing results of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) special investigation on these concentrates.
GAO found that: (1) apple juice concentrate comprises nearly all of the apple juice imports entering the United States; (2) the volume of apple juice concentrate imports increased fivefold between 1980 and 1985; (3) between March and May 1985, FDA district offices sampled each shipment of imported apple juice concentrate for mercury and daminozide, in addition to their regular tests, since there were allegations that these chemicals were present in the concentrate; (4) most samples tested contained no detectable chemical residues; (5) samples containing the chemicals had levels well below the allowable levels; (6) FDA believes that imported apple juice and apple juice concentrate are safe; and (7) FDA added distilled water to its samples so that it could test the samples on a consistent basis and in the form in which they are normally consumed.
