Pesticides in vegetables and fruits from Brazil and risk assessment

ABSTRACT

Levels of 237 pesticides were assessed in 1063 fruit and vegetable samples from 12 São Paulo markets spanning the period May 2015 to December 2022. The QuEChERS method was employed for extraction, followed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS analysis. Findings indicated that 30% of the samples contained residues below the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), while 6% exceeded these. Additionally, 23% exhibited excessive residues for their respective crops and 40% had no detectable residues. Health risk evaluation focused on tomatoes, cabbage and oranges, revealing exposure within 0.002–0.9% of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), indicating no chronic risks. However, pyraclostrobin in orange presented a potential acute risk for adults (112%). These results underscore the necessity for continuous monitoring of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables to safeguard consumer health, especially considering the significant levels of consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Orange
• pyraclostrobin
• acute risk
• QuEChERS
• chronic risk
• short-term intake
• long-term intake

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19393210.2024.2373347

Additional information

Funding

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