A recent study by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC, Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor) found that 14 out of 24 ultra-processed foods from meat and milk commonly consumed in Brazil had pesticide residues.
 
According to the study, six ultra-processed food types identified to have pesticide residues included fried chicken nuggets, fresh cheese, pork sausages, italian sausages, salsicha, and beef burgers, Brazil's G1 website reported. Due to methodological limitations, it is not yet clear whether pesticide residues cause harm to human health. IDEC notes that the National Bureau of Health Supervision (Anvisa) does not set caps on the amount of pesticide residues in ultra-processed products. The study was carried out through laboratory analysis, which detected residues of up to 653 pesticides. The types and brands of food Brazilians consume the most were chosen by the institute based on a "household budget survey" and a number of market studies. The results showed that the top three foods with most types of pesticide residues were chicken nuggets and fresh cheese. In addition, all meat products contain pesticide residues. Of the 14 foods found to contain pesticide residues, the most common type of pesticide was Seara fried chicken, with a total of five pesticides detected. Seara Foods responded: "Seara Foods provided technical details regarding the 'defective food' to Idec in March 2022, but regretfully found that clarification information was not included in the published report. All of the Seara products analyzed complied with the food specifications published by Anvisa."

In the study, only two types of ultra-processed food showed no presence of pesticide residues , including ultra-processed yogurt and chocolate-flavored dairy drinks. But Idec researchers say this does not prove that the food is free of pesticide residues. "The lab analyzed only one batch of the product," they noted. A negative test result for the analyzed product may prove that the same batch of food is free of pesticide residues, but other batches may still have problems."
 
Careful washing of food does minimize the risk of health damage from certain pesticides, but some chemicals in pesticides can get into plant cells. Therefore, the use of pesticides is still controversial.