Effect of handling and processing on pesticide residues in food- a review

Abstract

Pesticides are one of the major inputs used for increasing agricultural productivity of crops. The pesticide residues, left to variable extent in the food materials after harvesting, are beyond the control of consumer and have deleterious effect on human health. The presence of pesticide residues is a major bottleneck in the international trade of food commodities. The localization of pesticides in foods varies with the nature of pesticide molecule, type and portion of food material and environmental factors. The food crops treated with pesticides invariably contain unpredictable amount of these chemicals, therefore, it becomes imperative to find out some alternatives for decontamination of foods. The washing with water or soaking in solutions of salt and some chemicals e.g. chlorine, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, ozone, acetic acid, hydroxy peracetic acid, iprodione and detergents are reported to be highly effective in reducing the level of pesticides. Preparatory steps like peeling, trimming etc. remove the residues from outer portions. Various thermal processing treatments like pasteurization, blanching, boiling, cooking, steaming, canning, scrambling etc. have been found valuable in degradation of various pesticides depending upon the type of pesticide and length of treatment. Preservation techniques like drying or dehydration and concentration increase the pesticide content many folds due to concentration effect. Many other techniques like refining, fermentation and curing have been reported to affect the pesticide level in foods to varied extent. Milling, baking, wine making, malting and brewing resulted in lowering of pesticide residue level in the end products. Post harvest treatments and cold storage have also been found effective. Many of the decontamination techniques bring down the concentration of pesticides below MRL. However, the diminution effect depends upon the initial concentration at the time of harvest, substrate/food and type of pesticide. There is diversified information available in literature on the effect of preparation, processing and subsequent handling and storage of foods on pesticide residues which has been compiled in this article.

Survey of pyrethroid, macrocyclic lactone and antibacterial residues in bulk milk tank from Minas Gerais State, Brazil

“…As a result, some veterinary drugs residues may be found in greater concentration in milk products than milk from which these were manufactured due to concentration effect and/or affinity for lipid moiety and ther- mal stability (Bajwa & Sandhu 2014, Macedo et al 2015. For instance, in a survey of macrocyclic lactones residues in butter, Macedo et al (2015) found a high incidence of the presence of avermectins in butter samples, in which ivermectin, doracmectin and abamectin were detected in 89.5% (0.3 to 119.4µg kg -1 ), 76.3% (0.6 to 64.6µg kg -1 ) and 55.2% (0.7 to 4.5µg kg -1 ) of the butter samples in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro -Brazil, respectively.…”

Household Management of Pesticides and Chemical Contaminants in Fruit and Vegetables

“…Several studies have indicated that the basic household food processing techniques such as washing, peeling, soaking, cooking, blanching, concentrating, etc. reduce the pesticide concentration by leaching it off (Bajwa et al, 2014;Keikotlhaile et al, 2011). Effect of the food processing on pesticide residue level is multifactorial and affected by the physicochemical properties of food such as solubility, volatility, thermal stability, etc.…”

“…Rate of rinsing off is not affected by its solubility in water (Cengiz et al, 2007); however addition of chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, etc. plays more effective role in the removal of pesticide residues during washing (Bajwa et al, 2014).…”

“…Kaushik et al (2016) reported the significant lowering of deltamethrin residues in chick pea after subjecting to cooking. Other moist thermal cooking treatments (steaming, blanching, and pasteurization) also contributes to significant pesticide content decrease (Keikotlhaile et al, 2011;Bajwa et al, 2014). Thus, we understand that the simple and basic household treatments …”

Synthesis and antifungal activity of new salicylic acid derivatives

“…Current control of postharvest crop diseases consists mainly of the use of synthetic chemical fungicides, for example belonging to imidazole, benzimidazole, phenylpyrrole and dicarboximide groups 6, 7 . The excessive use of synthetic fungicides has caused an increase of public concern over their possible impact on human health, due to the presence of fungicide residues in food and in the environment [8][9][10][11] . On the other hand, it is also the reason of development of pathogens resistance to fungicides 12 .…”