Abstract
The present study focused on the optimization of the QuEChERS extraction method for the determination of 61 pesticide residues and associated health risk assessment in 144 samples of commonly consumed vegetables, viz., eggplant, cabbage, green chilli, okra, and tomato. The samples were collected between January and April 2022 from three different districts within Gujarat, India. The QuEChERS method was optimized and utilized for the extraction of samples. The samples were analyzed by UHPLC-q-TOF/MS and GC–MS/MS. The modified QuEChERS method was successfully validated, and the obtained results were satisfactory as per the 2021 SANTE guidelines. The residue analysis of the vegetable samples showed that about 4% of total samples contained single pesticide residues. Pesticide residues below the quantitation limit (BQL) were observed in eggplant, cabbage, and okra samples. In total, 15.62% (n = 5) samples of green chilli showed the presence of pesticides such as azoxystrobin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, fenpropathrin, and propargite whereas 3% (n = 1) tomato samples contained cyfluthrin. In total, 97.22% of the samples had residues that were below the European Union Maximum Residue Limit (EU MRL). Two samples of green chilli had pesticide residues above EU MRL. The Hazard Index (HI) and Hazard Quotient (HQ) were used to assess the health risks associated with green chilli and tomato consumption. The HI and HQ values for adolescents and adults were found to be less than 1. The modified QuEChERS method was found to be easy and effective and can be implemented for routine sample analysis. The study revealed the presence of pesticide residues in tomato and green chilli samples. Further, the outcome provided information pertaining to current pesticide status, concluding that consumption of these commodities is unlikely to pose any health risk, though long-term monitoring studies focusing on dietary health risk assessment must be initiated.
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All analytical datasets are available from the corresponding author. The date will be provided on a reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The research work was supported by ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad-380016. Further, we are greatly thankful to the Director in charge, ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health for guidance and support. We are thankful to Mr. Chandrakant G. Parmar for his support during the sampling.
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Sivaperumal Perumal: conceptualization, study design, supervision, analytical data interpretation, and editing of the final manuscript. Divya Kottadiyil: sample preparation, experimental work, data curation, and writing draft manuscript and revision of manuscript. Rupal Thasale: conducted instrument analysis, acquisition, and visualization of data in GC–MS/MS. Tejal Mehta: conducted instrument analysis, acquisition, and visualization of data UHPLC-q-TOF/MS.
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Perumal, S., Kottadiyil, D., Thasale, R. et al. Optimization of QuEChERS method for determination of pesticide residues in vegetables and health risk assessment. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33345-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33345-3