Evaluation of pesticide residues in vegetables and risk assessment from Incheon, Korea

Abstract

This study investigated pesticide residues to evaluate food safety caused by vegetables in Incheon. A total of 385 samples of 33 different types of vegetables mainly consumed by Koreans were collected from the Incheon market in 2021. The pesticide residues were analyzed by the multi-residue methods of the Korean Food Code for 339 different pesticides. Of the 385 vegetables, no residual pesticides were detected in 329 samples (85.5%), while 56 samples (14.5%) contained residual pesticides and 13 samples (3.4%) had residues above the maximum residue limit. A total of 34 different pesticide residues were detected and 8 pesticides exceeded maximum residue limits (MRLs). The most frequently detected pesticide residues were fluxametamide (7 samples), azoxystrobin (4 samples), chlorantraniliprole (3 samples), flubendiamide (3 samples), and procymidone (3 samples). The highest values in the risk assessment were obtained when Chinese chives were consumed with terbufos. But the values of HQ and cHI were lower than 100%. Therefore, the results showed that the detected pesticides were no potential risk from consumption of vegetables.

Keywords: Incheon; Korea; Pesticide residues; Risk assessment; Vegetables.