Pesticide residues analysis in Iranian fruits and vegetables by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables are one of the highest concerns of consumers who need food safety. In this study, forty-eight pesticide residues from different chemical structure including organochlorine, organophosphorus, organonitrogen, dicarboximides, strobilurin, triazine, pyrethroids and other chemical groups. in 85 fruits and vegetables were determined and confirmed by GC-MS. The pesticide was extracted with ethyl-acetate, then, the extracts cleaned using high performance gel permeation column chromatography (GPC) and solid phase column (SPE). The mean recoveries of the pesticides were between 81 and 136%. The reproducibility of the relative standard deviation values was 2.1 and 14.8%. Pesticide residues were more frequently found in vegetables (65.5%) than in fruits (26.7%). The limits of detection and quantification of pesticide residues for the method were ranged from 0.003 to 0.06 μg g-1 and between 0.01 to 0.1 μg g-1 respectively. The analyzed samples did not contain residues from the monitored pesticides that were higher than the accepted maximum residue limits (MRLS) as adapted by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission.