Food Chemistry: X (Mar 2020)

Pesticide residues evaluation of organic crops. A critical appraisal

  • María del Mar Gómez-Ramos,
  • Christina Nannou,
  • María Jesús Martínez Bueno,
  • Ana Goday,
  • María Murcia-Morales,
  • Carmen Ferrer,
  • Amadeo R. Fernández-Alba

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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In the last decade, the consumption trend of organic food has increased dramatically worldwide. Since only a few pesticides are authorized in organic crops, concentrations are expected to range at zero or ultra-trace levels. In this context, the aim of the present study was to investigate the need for an improvement in the residue controls at very low concentrations (<0.010 mg kg−1) and to assess the impact of the scope of the analytical methods for this type of crops. For that purpose, a monitoring study for fruit and vegetable samples covering a wide range of pesticides (3 2 8) at low LOQs (0.002–0.005 mg kg−1) was developed. The results showed that the impact of applying analytical methods with low LOQs was not very relevant in the majority of the cases. However, a wide scope presented a high influence on this evaluation, especially regarding the inclusion of very polar compounds and metabolites. Keywords: Authorized pesticides, Ionic polar compounds, Organic food, GC–MS/MS, LC–MS/MS, IC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS