Feasibility of Using VIS/NIR Spectroscopy and Multivariate Analysis for Pesticide Residue Detection in Tomatoes

Araz Soltani Nazarloo,Maciej Sprawka,Mariusz Szymanek,Yousef Abbaspour Gilandeh,Vali Rasooli Sharabiani,Ebrahim Taghinezhad

doi:10.3390/pr9020196

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to investigate the detection of the pesticide residual (profenofos) in tomatoes by using visible/near-infrared spectroscopy. Therefore, the experiments were performed on 180 tomato samples with different percentages of profenofos pesticide (higher and lower values than the maximum residual limit (MRL)) as compared to the control (no pesticide). VIS/near infrared (NIR) spectral data from pesticide solution and non-pesticide tomato samples (used as control treatment) impregnated with different concentrations of pesticide in the range of 400 to 1050 nm were recorded by a spectrometer. For classification of tomatoes with pesticide content at lower and higher levels of MRL as healthy and unhealthy samples, we used different spectral pre-processing methods with partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models. The Smoothing Moving Average pre-processing method with the standard error of cross validation (SECV) = 4.2767 was selected as the best model for this study. In addition, in the calibration and prediction sets, the percentages of total correctly classified samples were 90 and 91.66%, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that reflective spectroscopy (VIS/NIR) can be used as a non-destructive, low-cost, and rapid technique to control the health of tomatoes impregnated with profenofos pesticide.

Highlights

If the spraying takes place at an inappropriate time and the product is harvested before the end of the pre-harvest interval, a large amount of the pesticide will remain in the product, which is dangerous to humans and livestock
Possible continuity of pesticide residues in tomatoes is a challenge for consumers
In order to obtain different concentrations of pesticide residues in the samples, we inoculated them with 40% EC (40% EC) (C11H15BrClO3PS) with 14 days pre-harvest interval (PHI) [25]

Summary

Introduction

In 2018, world tomato production was 182 million tons, of which Iran accounted for 6.5 million tons [5,6]. According to national and international standards, if the residual level of pesticide exceeds the standard, the product is considered to be risky for consumption and endangers health [9]. The non-systemic insecticide, Profenofos pesticide, is an organophosphate insecticide that controls, through contact and digestion properties, a wide range of rodent and sucker pests in many products such as tomatoes. This compound has penetrating properties and is able to move from leaf surface to leaf back. Possible continuity of pesticide residues in tomatoes is a challenge for consumers. Maximum residual limit (MRL) of tomatoes in the European Union (EU) (European Commission (EC)

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Conclusion