Abstract
Residue analyses were conducted for 283 pesticide active ingredients on pepper samples collected from the local markets (between April and November) of Çanakkale province of Turkey by using QuEChERS method and LC–MS/MS and GC–MS/MS devices. In present pepper samples, 35 different pesticide residues were detected. About 25.0% (27 samples) of present samples had single residue and 43.5% (47 samples) had multiple residues. Of the detected pesticides, acetamiprid, triadimenol, imidacloprid, boscalid, pirimiphos-methyl, tebuconazole, and metalaxyl were the most common ones, while carbendazim/benomyl, fenpropathrin, and thiram were the banned ones. Moreover, 24 of the pesticide residues detected were above the MRL values, 19 pesticides were in the “moderately hazardous (II),” and two pesticides were in the “extremely hazardous (Ib)” class (WHO). Present findings revealed that consumer health may be in danger despite all legal measures by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey, thus greater emphasis should be put on monitoring of pesticide use and residues.
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Acknowledgements
This work was a part of the master thesis of Uğur Çiftçi (School of Graduate Studies, Department of Plant Protection, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University). The authors are also grateful to Prof. Dr. Zeki Gökalp (Certified English Translator) for his critical reading and through syntactic corrections of the manuscript. Pesticide analyses of pepper samples were conducted at Residue Laboratory of Çanakkale Food Control Directorate of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Accredited (ISO 17025i) by TÜRKAK for 156 pesticide active ingredients in accordance with TS EN ISO/IEC 17025.
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Yıldırım, İ., Çiftçi, U. Monitoring of pesticide residues in peppers from Çanakkale (Turkey) public market using QuEChERS method and LC–MS/MS and GC–MS/MS detection. Environ Monit Assess 194, 570 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10253-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10253-y