Residues, risk assessment and decontamination of lambda cyhalothrin residues from tomato fruits

Lambda cyhalothrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, recommended in tomato for the control of fruit borer in the form of 5% EC and 4.9% CS @15 g a.i ha-1 by CIBRC with the Pre Harvest Interval of 4 and 5 days for respective formulations. Neither FSSAI nor CAC fixed MRL values for lambda cyhalothrin on tomato. In this view a research project was taken to study dissipation pattern of lambda cyhalothrin in both open fields and poly houses, and to address the food safety issue, common household decontamination methods were evaluated for their efficiency in removing lambda cyhalothrin residues from tomato fruits. Residues were estimated through regular sampling till the residues reach below determination level (BDL) of 0.05 mg kg-1, following the validated QuEChERS method. Initial deposits of 0.18 mg kg-1 and 0.13 mg kg-1 were detected in tomato samples collected from the poly house and open fields which dissipated to BDL by the 7th and 5th day respectively. MRL of 0.3 mg kg-1 is recommended by utilizing the OECD MRL calculator, and chronic hazard exposure assessment was carried out based on average body weight, national per capita consumption of tomato and acceptable daily intake (ADI) of lambda cyhalothrin. Among various decontamination methods tested, veggy wash found to be very effective in removing lambda cyhalothrin residues to an extent of 68.87% which can be recommended as risk mitigation method for food safety, followed by 4% acetic acid solution (59.31%) and 2% salt solution (48.02%).