Salute to Idaho Agriculture: Idaho Food Quality Assurance Lab

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —The Idaho Food Quality Assurance Lab has been open since 1997 to support Idaho and national agriculture. They test food - but not for taste, but for pesticide residue.

“We do routine testing in potatoes, onions, the ground water. We also do target analysis for investigations that are wanting to see what’s been sprayed on their field,” said Principle Chemist, Jennifer Holtzen.

For potatoes they look for about 145 different types of chemicals and 100 for onions.

“A lot of our customers use us as kind of an insurance policy. If we’re doing a routine screen for them and have been doing this historically, they can show that their product is clean within EPA tolerances for pesticides,” said Holtzen.

The lab takes samples from farms around the state and is open to the public.

for information on how to submit a sample and a breakdown of prices and information, Click Here.

Copyright 2023 KMVT. All rights reserved.