Study of Pesticide Residues in Oranges

Abstract

       Orange is one of worldwide popular fruit because of its high nutritional composition and availability in market. However, it is a farm plant which requires a wide variety of chemicals to protect and to destroy pests. Also, the opening of free trade zone in Thailand leads to a very large amount of imported oranges from other countries. These problems result, during October 2012 – September 2014, pesticide residues have been surveyed by the Bureau of Quality and Safety of Food. Four groups of pesticides (organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, and synthetic pyrethroids) were determined in 203 orange samples which were 20 samples of oranges grown in Thailand (collected from the markets in Bangkok and suburban area), and 183 samples of the imported oranges, mostly from Myanmar and China. These samples were quantiied by using gas chromatography and liquid chromatography. The results showed that there are nine pesticide residue compounds were founded in every orange sample from Thailand. The most frequent detected compounds were ethion and carbofuran in the range of < 0.05 – 0.49 and < 0.01 – 0.12 mg/kg, respectively. On the other hand, fourteen pesticides presented in 71% of the imported samples and the highest residues are chlorpyrifos, ethion, cypermethrin, and tetradifon. These compounds ranged from < 0.05– 0.25, < 0.05– 3.06, < 0.05– 2.16 and < 0.05– 0.72 mg/kg, respectively. Even only the pulp of orange is being consumed, the laboratory analyses were performed with the whole fruit. In addition, the rinse of orange before peeling of is recommended to ensure the safety for health.