LEVELS OF ORGANOPHOSPHATE AND PYRETHROID RESIDUES IN SOME EGYPTIAN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AND THEIR DIETARY EXPOSURE

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Women, Ain Shams University

2 Agricultural Research Center (ARC)

3 Egypt Chemicals Company

Abstract

A total of 230 samples of four most public consumed fruits and vegetables, were collected from two wholesale Egyptian markets during 2015. The collected samples were subjected to analysis for 51 pesticide residues of organophosphates (OP’s) and pyrethroids (PY’s) groups. The standard method (QuEChERS) was followed to the analysis of samples applying LC-MS/MS determination. The obtained data showed that, 17.4% of samples had no detectable residues. Whereas, 82.6% had detectable pesticide residues of which 18.3% contaminated with levels above the MRL's and 64.3% (148 samples) had residues below the permissible limits. The highest contamination percentages were observed in grape followed by pepper, apple and tomato with percentages of 90%, 88.3%, 81.7% and 71.7% respectively of which 18%, 23.33%, 23.3% and 8.3% exceeded the permissible MRL's. The most frequent (OP’s) and (PY’s) are chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, lambda cyhalothrin and diazinon.
Risk assessment was evaluated via calculation of chronic and cumulative exposure for total of 17 residues of (OP’s) and (PY’s). The results indicated that no chronic health risk associated with consumption of studied commodities. The cumulative exposure values of (OP’s) pesticides was below 1 (0.059 for adults) in fruit samples and (0.108 for adults) in vegetable samples. Also, cumulative exposure values of (PY’s) pesticides were below 1 (0.012 for adults) in fruit samples and (0.017 for adults) in vegetable samples, indicateing no hazard to consumers due to presence of OP’s and PY’s residues in Egyptian fruits and vegetables.
 

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