Investigation of pesticide residues in commercialized fruits and risk assessment of dietary intake in Shaanxi Province from 2018 to 2021

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess human exposure risk from pesticide residues through ingestion of fruit in Shaanxi Province， pesticide residues in fruits were investigated and analyzed.MethodsFour hundred eighty-six commercialized fruit samples from 6 categories were collected from 10 cities in Shaanxi Province from 2018 to 2021. Two standard procedures， including “National Risk Monitoring Manual Standard Operating Procedure for the Determination of Multi-Component Pesticide Residues in Vegetal Samples by Gas Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry （GC-MS）” as well as “Standard Operating Procedure for the Determination of Multi-Component Pesticide Residues in Vegetal Samples （including Edible Fungi） by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry （LC-MS）” were used to analyze the residues of 13 kinds of insecticides and 15 kinds of bactericides. Furthermore， the detection rate and over-standard rate of multi-component pesticide residues in fruits were evaluated according to the GB 2763—2021 “National Food Safety Standard-Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Food”. The point assessment method was used to assess the acute and chronic dietary exposure risks of all pesticide residues， and a food safety index model was used to determine the overall risk assessment of the detected pesticides.ResultsIn addition to four bactericides （pyraclostrobin， oxadixyl， myclobutanil and iprodione） and three insecticides （ ethoprophos， cyromazine and cyfluthrin）， the remaining 21 pesticides， including some banned， highly toxic pesticides， were detected to different degrees with detection rates ranging from 0.77% to 21.54%. Four pesticide residues in seven samples exceeded the standard， with detection rates ranging from 0.28% to 1.27%. The detection rate of pesticide residues was highest in stone fruits （39.24%）， tropical and subtropical fruits （28.33%）， citrus fruits （26.47%）， and kernel fruits （25.96%）. The over-standard rate was highest in berry fruits （2.54%）， and combined utilization of multiple pesticides was found. The values for acute and chronic dietary exposure to all pesticide types were lower than the health guidelines. The food safety index for a single pesticide is < 1. The overall food safety index of the fruits was less than 1.ConclusionAlthough the detection rate of pesticide residues in fruits from Shaanxi Province was relatively high， the over-standard rate was low. The risk from dietary intake of fruits monitored in this study was within an acceptable range； therefore， the safety and quality of the commercialized fruits collected from 2018 to 2020 met the requirements.

Keywords

• shaanxi province
• fruit
• pesticide residue
• risk assessment