Determination of Pesticide Residues in Fresh and Greenhouse Vegetables

Regarding the public concerns about serious health risks from pesticide, the occurrences of 105 pesticide residues including Organochlorine, Organophosphorus, Organonitrogen, Dicarboximides, Strobilurin, Triazine, Pyrethroids were assessed using a descriptive method in 25 fresh and greenhouse vegetable samples (fresh carrot, greenhouse tomato and cucumber). Ethyl acetate was used for extraction of pesticides from samples and the extract was cleaned up by Envicarb Solid Phase Extraction column chromatography. Pesticide residues were identified and quantified using gas chromatography ion trap mass spectrometry detector. The mean recoveries and limit of detection of the pesticides in samples were respectively 61.67-117% and the reproducibility of relative standard deviation values for the pesticides was 3.49-14.55%. Our data demonstrated that 80% of the total analyzed samples contained detectable residues including trifluralin, permethrin, chlorpyrifos, fenvalerate, fenpropathrin and iprodione, which were below the accepted maximum residue limits (MRLS) adopted by FAO/WHO Codex Commision Alimentarius.