Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables from Africa - a Nordic Project
Karlström U1, Siivinen K2, Hamborg Jensen B3, Petersen A3, Nielsen H4, Skretteberg LG5, Børge Holen5, Jansson A6,
1Finnish
Food Safety Authority Evira, Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki, Finland, e-mail: ulla.karlstrom@evira.fi
Customs Laboratory, P.O. Box 53, 02151 Espoo, Finland, e-mail: kalevi.siivinen@tulli.fi
National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Mørkhøj Bygade 19, 2860 Søborg, Denmark, e-mail: bhje@food.dtu.dk and annp@food.dtu.dk
4Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Division of Residues, Sondervang 4, DK-4100 Ringsted, Denmark; e-mail: HNIE@fvst.dk
5Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, 1432 Ås, Norway, e-mail: Lise-Gunn.Skretteberg@bioforsk.no and borge.holen@bioforsk.no
6National Food Administration, Box 622, SE-751 26 Uppsala, Sweden, e-mail: anders.jansson@slv.se
2Finnish
3The
Introduction
In order to cover more commodity/country-combinations, the
Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) are
co-operating in monitoring. In 2008 the countries agreed to
monitor samples from Africa. Together the Nordic countries
analyzed a total of 623 samples from 18 different countries.
Most of the samples came from South Africa (249), followed by
Egypt (129), Morocco (92) and Kenya (88). In total 45 different
commodities were analyzed, oranges (162) being the largest
group, followed by beans with pods (80) and table grapes (71).
In the analytical scope 220 to 345 pesticides and metabolites
Samples
Peaches
2%
Lychee
2%
Lemons
2%
Avocados
2%
Peanuts
2% Mangoes
2%
Tomatoes
2%
Plums
3%
Pears
3%
were covered.
Apple
3%
Others
9%
Oranges
26%
Strawberry
3%
Grapefruits
3%
Passion
fruits
4%
Beans with
pods
13%
Table
grapes
11%
Peas with
pod
4%
Mandarins
6%
Number of samples
180
160
Results
140
Most of the samples contained
detectable residues (71.6 %). All
together, 93 different substances were
found. Imazalil, thiabendazole and
chlorpyrifos were the three most
frequently detected pesticides and
mainly found in citrus fruit. MRLs
(national and EU) were exceeded in 5.5
% of the samples. Totally 34 samples
had residues above the MRLs.
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Total of Africa
No residues
Rejected
28.4 %
<MRL
66.10%
5.50%
>MRL
<MRL
No residues
Products exceeding MRLs. Risk assessment by using the EFSA model PRIMo,
Product
Oranges
No. of
samples >
MRL
Country
12
Egypt
Passion fruits
2
Zimbabwe
Passion fruits
9
Kenya
Beans with pod
6
Kenya
Pomegranates
2
Egypt
Table grapes
Peppers
Strawberry
1
1
1
Egypt
Egypt
Egypt
Substance (No.> MRL)
Diazinon (8)
Dimethoate (2)
Fenitrothion (2)
Aldikarb (1)
Trifloxystrobin (1)
Dithiocarbamates (1)
Dimethoate (3)
Thiophanate-methyl (6)
Carbendazim and benomyl (1)
Chlorothalonil (4)
Ethion (1)
Highest
result mg/kg
0.07
0.06
0.04
0.04
0.11
0.26
0.06
0.41
0.31
0.61
0.02
MRL mg/kg
0.01*
0.02*
0.01*
0.02*
0.02*
0.05*
0.02*
0.1*
0.1*
0.01*
0.01*
0.63
1.2
0.16
0.09
0.10
0.16
0.31
0.11
0.16
0.02*
1
0.02*
0.05*
0.02*
0.1*
0.01*
0.05*
0.1*
Dimethoate (5)
Dithiocarbamates (1)
Famoxadone (1)
Methomyl and Thiodicarb (1)
Lambda-cyhalothrin (1)
Thiophanate-methyl (1)
Ethion (1)
Profenofos (1)
Thiophanate-methyl (1)
ARfD mg/kg
% of ARfD
Most critical
bw/day
PRIMo (vers. 2) consumer group
0.025
38.2
UK infant
0.01
79.6
UK infant
0.013
40.8
UK infant
0.003
2.2
BE child
Not appl.
0.08
0.5
BE child
0.01
0.9
BE child
0.2
0.3
BE child
0.02
2.6
BE child
0.6
0.2
BE child
Not available
0.01
0.08
0.2
0.0025
0.0075
0.2
Not available
1
0.2
V factor
7
7
7
1
1
1
1
1
1
71.5
17
0.9
89.2
33
5.1
NL child
NL child
NL child
UK Todler
UK Todler
DE child
1
1
1
7
7
5
0.2
1.2
DE child
DE child
1
1
Risk assessment
Totally 34 samples had residues above the MRLs. The acute intake was calculated for those pesticides which an acute reference dose (ARfD) has
sbeen et either by EFSA, EU or JMPR. The calculations were done using the EFSA PRIMo model (version 2). None of the samples exceeded the
ARfD. However, in peppers the acute intake resulted in very high exceedance (976 %) when ARfD for ethion was set to ADI (0,002 mg/kg bw/day) and
variability factor 7 was used. ARfD value was not available as ethion is not included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC. In practice, this type of
exceedances would be considered dangerous to consumers and products would be withdrawn from the market.
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