A safety survey on pesticide residues in green coffee beans

Abstract

We investigated pesticide residues in green coffee beans. Toward this, we collected 80 samples of green coffee beans and analyzed the presence of 41 different pesticides using a combination of the QuEChERS method and GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS. In the validation study, the values of limit of detection and limit of quantitation were in the range of 0.0003-0.0031 mg/kg and 0.0009-0.0093 mg/kg, respectively. The coefficient of determination (R2) was > 0.99. The recovery rate was satisfied except for 2 pesticides at the concentration level of 0.01 mg/kg, and except for 5 pesticides at the concentration level of 0.1, 0.5 mg/kg. The pesticide residue detection rate in the green coffee beans was 18.8% (15 of 80 samples). Pesticide residues were detected in 11 samples from Brazil, 2 samples from Colombia, 1 sample from Kenya, and 1 sample from India, all of which were Coffea arabica. Five kinds of residual pesticides were detected. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphorus insecticide, triadimenol is a triazol fungicide, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin are neonicotinoid insecticides. All 15 green coffee beans in which detected pesticide residues were evaluated at a safe level below the Maximum Residual Limits (MRLs), but since coffee consumption is increasing day by day, the levels of pesticide residues in green coffee beans should be monitored continuously.