Pesticide residue monitoring in Korean agricultural products, 2003–05

Between 2003 and 2005, a total of 11,716 samples were collected and analysed to determine the level of pesticides residues. Multi-residue methods (MRMs) capable of simultaneously determining 250 pesticides were used. Of the 11,716 samples, 89.1% had no detectable residues and 1.7% had violative residues. The detection rates by commodity group were 11.4, 8.6, 0.3, and 0.02% for vegetables, fruit, grain, mushrooms, and the others, respectively. Agricultural products with pesticide residues were pepper, Perilla frutescens, leafy lettuce and spinach in decreasing order. Of the 250 pesticides that were monitored, 70 pesticides were actually found. Procymidone, endosulfan, chlorfenapyr, metalaxyl, and diethofencarb were frequently detected. Of the samples, parsley, Petasites hybridus, Aster scaber and leek had high violative rates of 23.1, 12.6, 8.2, and 7.9%, respectively. From violative samples, procymidone, endosulfan, metalaxyl, diazinon and chlorpyrifos were frequently detected. The violation rates were 1.71, 1.68, and 1.76% in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the detection rates were 8.5, 12.0, and 13.3% in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively.