Screening of Organochlorine Pesticide Residues in Chicken Eggs in and around Mumbai City

Abstract

A multiresidue method was standardized using Gas Chromatography (GC) equipped with Electron Capture Detector (GC-ECD) for simultaneous detection and quantification of selected pesticide residues viz., DDT isomers, HCH isomers and α-endosulphan in chicken egg samples. Method validation revealed average recoveries ranging between 68.64% to 115.62% with percent RSD below 10% for all the analytes under study. Among all the 120 chicken egg samples analysed from five different sources, 76 (63.33%), 17 (14.16%) and 8 (6.66%) samples showed presence of DDT isomers, HCH isomers and α-endosulphan, respectively. Highest prevalence of pesticide residues was noted for DDT isomers (70.83% each) in eggs collected from northern Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh followed by HCH isomers from western Maharashtra (25%) and for α- endosulphan from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (12.5%). On ther hand, lowest prevalence was observed for DDT isomers (54.16%) in eggs from Western Maharashtra, followed by HCH isomers from Andhra Pradesh (8.33%) and nil for α-endosulphan from northern and western Maharashtra. Although the eggs marketed in the Mumbai city were containing organochlorine pesticide residues, none of the egg sample showed presence of residue levels in excess of permissible levels prescribed by PFA and Codex.