Pesticides are one of the major inputs used for increasing agricultural
productivity of crops. However, their inadequate application may produce
large quantities of residues in the environment and, once the environment is
contaminated with pesticides, they may easily enter into the human food chain
through plants, creating a potentially serious health hazard. Nowadays,
consumers are becoming more aware of the importance of safe and high quality
food products. Thus it is pertinent to explore simple, cost-effective
strategies for decontaminating food from pesticides. Various food processing
techniques, at industrial and/or domestical level, have been found to
significantly reduce the contents of pesticide residues in most food
materials. The extent of reduction varies with the nature of pesticides, type
of commodity and processing steps. Pesticides, especially those with limited
movement and penetration ability, can be removed with reasonable efficiency
by washing, and the effectiveness of washing depends on pesticide solubility
in water or in different chemical solvents. Peeling of fruit and vegetable
skin can dislodge pesticide residues to varying degrees, depending on
constitution of a commodity, chemical nature of the pesticide and
environmental conditions. Different heat treatments (drying, pasteurization,
sterilization, blanching, steaming, boiling, cooking, frying or roasting)
during various food preparation and preservation processes can cause losses
of pesticide residues through evaporation, co-distillation and/or thermal
degradation. Product manufactures, from the simplest grain milling, through
oil extraction and processing, juicing/pureeing or canning of fruits and
vegetables, to complex bakery and dairy production, malting and brewing, wine
making and various fermentation processes, play a role in the reduction of
pesticide contents, whereby each operation involved during processing usually
adds to a cumulative effect of reduction of pesticides present in the
material. There is diversified information available in literature on the
effect of food processing on pesticide residues which has been compiled in
this article.
Food processing as a means for pesticide residue dissipation