Residual pesticides in grape leaves (Vitis vinifera L.) on the Egyptian market and human health risk

ABSTRACT

A QuEChERS method, followed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS was used for determining more than 400 pesticide residues in grape leaves collected from the Egyptian markets during the 2021 summer season. Seventy-eight samples contained 36 pesticide residues of different chemical groups above the EU-MRLs. Fungicides were the most frequently detected pesticides (59%), followed by insecticides (35%) and herbicides (5%).Hazard Quotients and Hazard Indexes were calculated where the results showed that both do not pose any health risk to consumers. Furthermore, cumulative risk assessment parameters (cHI) according to pesticide chemical group were calculated, resulting in 0.06, 0.09, 0.20, 0.28, 0.7 and 1.1% for strobin, organophosphorus, neonicotinoid, pyrethroid, benzimidazole and azole compounds, respectively. Fungicides were the major contributors to cHI, above insecticides by a factor of 2.7. Hence, there is a need for continuous survey and monitoring to protects consumers from exposure to unauthorized substances such as carbendazim, benomyl and profenofos.

KEYWORDS:

• Grape leaves
• pesticide residues
• hazard quotient
• hazard index
• ADI
• ARfD

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the use of the facilities, equipment and resources of the Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods (QCAP), especially Dr. Ekramy Halawa for his technical evaluation of LC-MS/MS data during the development of this paper.

Disclosure statement

The author declares to have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.