An intensive study on pesticides contamination and its removal in fruits and vegetables collected from Ghaziabad, India

Abstract

These days pesticides are extensively applied in agriculture to increase productivity; although these pesticides increase productivity but also have a negative impact on the consumer. Thus, pesticide exposure in agricultural products must be decreased. The present study attempted to assess pesticide residues in samples of apple, tomato, and brinjal and determine the efficacy of washing solutions in pesticide removal. For sample preparation, the QuEChERS method was employed, and prepared samples were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results of the study revealed that among the collected samples, 58.33 percent samples were showing lower pesticide residues as compared to the maximum residue limit (MRL) while 12.5 percent of the samples were showing higher pesticides residues as compared to the suggested MRL. Further, from the collected fruits and vegetable samples, the presence of the chlorantraniliprole, carbendazim, beta endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, malathion, carbaryl, thiomethoxam, DDT, and flubendiamide were detected in the range of 0.0–1.41 mg/kg. Among the detected pesticides, chlorpyrifos and flubendiamide were the most commonly detected pesticides. Effectiveness of different washing solutions was studied, which indicated a significant reduction in residues of all the washing solutions compared with the control (p < 0.05) and concluded that ascorbic acid and sodium bicarbonate solution was very effective in pesticides removal compared with water and chemical alone.