A laboratory test commissioned by Mamavation found pesticide residues in Driscoll’s conventional strawberries, including eight chemicals it described as PFAS-linked “forever chemicals.” The sample, bought from a grocery store in Southern California and sent for testing on Monday, May 4, 2026, came back with residues of 12 different pesticides after screening for more than 500 pesticide types.

The result lands in a food category that many shoppers treat as a safe default. Strawberries are often bought for children, eaten raw and handled little before they reach the plate, which makes pesticide findings in the fruit especially hard to ignore. Mamavation said its advisors recommend organic strawberries as a way to reduce exposure to pesticides and PFAS.

Dr. Craig Downs, who has studied the issue for Mamavation, said fluorinated pesticides are becoming a source of PFAS contamination in food and the environment. “Fluorinated pesticides are a growing source of PFAS contamination in the environment and on and in our foods,” he said. He added that there is debate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over whether single fluorinated pesticides should always be treated as PFAS, but said many of their metabolites are long-lived enough to be considered forever chemicals.

Downs said those compounds also behave like PFAS because they can build up in the body over time. He linked them to cancer risks, reproductive diseases, developmental diseases in children and immune suppression. “It would be smart to try to completely avoid being exposed to them,” he said.

PFAS are a broad class of synthetic chemicals known for persistence in the environment and in the body, and the new findings fit a larger pattern Mamavation says it has tracked in other consumer products. The group said it has previously conducted investigations into sourdough breads tested for glyphosate, cooking oils tested for phthalates and teas tested for PFAS. It also said 37% of non-organic produce samples tested by the State of California had traces of PFAS pesticides.

The strawberries tested here were conventional, not organic, and Mamavation said the pesticides found in the sample are prohibited in the European Union, Taiwan, Chile, Korea and Russia. The group said it only spot-checks the industry and cannot predict what it will find in brands or products it has not tested. Products and manufacturing aides can also change without notice, which means one lab result cannot stand in for every box on every shelf.

That leaves shoppers with a narrow but clear takeaway from the driscoll strawberries news: the test did not look at all strawberries, but it did find enough PFAS-linked residues in one Southern California sample to reinforce Mamavation’s advice to choose organic when the goal is to cut pesticide and PFAS exposure.