Plant Protection Products Residues Assessment in the Organic and Conventional Agricultural Production

Marija Kostić,Gorica Vuković,Nikola Puvača,Bojan Konstantinović,Tijana Stojanović,Vojislava Bursić,Aleksandra Petrović,Dušan Marinković,Magdalena Cara

doi:10.3390/su13031075

Abstract

The organic food is progressively enticing purchasers’ attention, as it is recognized to be better than the food produced by the conventional agriculture and more sustainable for the natural environment. Pesticides and their metabolites can enter the human body via food and water. In the food production, over 60 thousand chemical agents are applied, while 90% of the harmful substances are consumed. The organic production is based on the qualitative and healthy food using the natural resources in an ecologically sustainable way. The European Regulations set the maximum pesticide levels (MRLs) in the organic products, which are also regulated by The United States Department of Agriculture in their National program supported by The United States Environmental Protection Agency. It is imperative to bear in mind that in the products from the organic production, the multiple detections cannot be tolerated, i.e., that one product cannot contain more than two detected pesticide residues. In this paper, a multi-residue pesticide method has been developed to determine the pesticides in the agricultural products from the organic and conventional production. In this work, 60 pesticides were analyzed using a simple QuEChERS sample preparation procedure, followed by LC-MS/MS. The tomato, potato, apple, and carrot samples from the organic and conventional products were collected from the market and the pesticide residues assessment comparing the organic to the conventional was done.

Highlights

The organic food is increasingly attracting the interest of the consumers, as it is perceived to be healthier than the food produced by the conventional agriculture and more sustainable for the environment [1]
It is well-known that the pesticides and their metabolites can be brought into the human body through food and water
The pesticide residues were analyzed using a simple QuEChERS sample preparation procedure, followed by the liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

Summary

Introduction

The organic food is increasingly attracting the interest of the consumers, as it is perceived to be healthier than the food produced by the conventional agriculture and more sustainable for the environment [1]. The organic production is based on the qualitative and healthy food through the use of natural resources in an ecologically sustainable way [9,10,11] This way of the agricultural production, different from the conventional, eliminates the application of the pesticides, growth regulators, synthetic minerals, hormones, fertilizers, antibiotics and additives [1,11]. The aim of this case study was to compare the detected pesticide residues in organic fruit and vegetable samples with those from the conventional production. The pesticide residues were analyzed using a simple QuEChERS sample preparation procedure, followed by the liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

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