Fate of Pesticide Residues on Raw Agricultural Crops after Postharvest Storage and Food Processing to Edible Portions

Abstract

Most analyses of pesticide residues in foods are being performed in Raw Agricultural Commodities (RAC) for a variety of purposes, which include regulatory monitoring, import/export certification, risk assessment, field-application trials, organic food verification, and marketing to consumers. The levels of the positive detections in these analyses are generally being estimated on the basis of established Maximum Residue Limits (MRL's) which are set using field trial data for a particular pesticide to arrive at the highest residue levels expected under use according to Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). MRL's are a credible and useful means of enforcing acceptable pesticide use, and satisfy most of the above mentioned purposes of monitoring pesticide residues in the different food of plant origin. However, MRL’s use, proved to be inadequate as a guide to pesticide residue consumption through nutrition in health risk assessment studies from residues in food of plant origin and this is mainly because a wide range of RAC’s are processed before they are consumed.