Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Orange juice for March delivery fell 0.4 percent to $2.0325 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York by 8:04 a.m., declining for a third straight day.

Some samples of U.S. orange juice tested positive for a banned fungicide although levels were so low they’re not a public health concern, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday.

Nine of 14 samples of domestic orange juice the agency tested contained the compound carbendazim in concentrations of less than 80 parts per billion, a safety benchmark set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency is holding and testing imported orange juice after low levels of carbendazim was detected in juice from Brazil. The compound, widely used in agriculture, is banned in U.S. oranges.

The agency said it will conduct follow-up testing although it “does not believe there is a need to continue” screening for the fungicide in orange juice already in the U.S.

--Editors: John Deane, Sharon Lindores

To contact the reporter on this story: John Deane in London at jdeane3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net