Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Different Agriculture Fields Effect of Different Home Processes on the Pesticides Elimination

Abstract

The effect of washing, storing, boiling, peeling, cooking with and without vinegar and frying on pesticide residue were investigated for vegetables and water/soil samples collected from Aga-Dhakahlia (Field 1), Nobaria, Behera (Field 2) and Giza (Field 3). Residues of organophosphorus, carbamate, organochlorine, fungicide, pyrethroid and abamectin pesticides.in the processed were analysed by gas and HPLC chromatography. Statistical analysis showed that potatoes contained the highest levels of dimethoate and diazinon as organophosphorus pesticides. Residue of pirimiphos-methyl in green bean and potatoes and residues of methomyl, abamectin and dicofol in cucumber and tomatoes were found to be were higher than their corresponding MRL’s. Effect of some common food processing techniques (simple washing combined with cooking and/or frying techniques and drying of green bean) were also investigated and the results reported their effectiveness in residues reduction. It was found that, washing process eliminated approximately 13-60% of organophosphorus, 20-50% of carbamates, 19-25% of cypermethrin, 60% of dicofol, 100% of penconazole and 18-75% of abamectin residues. Peeling of washed cucumber removed 65% of malathion, 66% of methomyl, 80% of dicofol and 83% of abamectin. It might be concluded that a combination of simple washing and peeling removed 10 to 85% of insecticides if applied before consumption. As well, cooking and frying might help to remove 25-100% of the residual insecticides. Irrigation and drainage water were contaminated with pesticides such as malathion, dimethoate, methomyl, aldicarb, dicofol and abamectin. Effect of storage on the abamectin found with vegetables and soil after spraying suggested that the residue of abamectin was gradually decreased with storage time. Final recommendations for this study is that monitoring programmes of pesticide residues in local produces must be expanded to include all food items and potentially harmful pesticide residues in order to generate information and establishing data based on food contaminants.