Risk assessment of pesticide residues in Chinese litchis
The presence of pesticide residues in fruit has been of extensive concern worldwide. In this paper, pesticide residues in litchi samples in China and their dietary exposure risks were evaluated. Fifty-seven pesticides in 150 litchi samples were measured by GC and UPLC/MS-MS. Seventeen different pesticides were detected and 70.7% of samples contained one or more pesticide residues. The most frequently detected pesticide was diflubenzuron with a detection rate of 36%. Only carbofuran in one sample exceeded its MRL and the exceedance was 125%. In dietary exposure assessments, all the values below LOD were calculated as 0, 1/2 LOD and LOD separately and the results demonstrated that the chronic dietary risks were extremely low. Acute exposure to carbofurn was 11.08% of the acute reference dose and acute exposure to all other pesticides was below 2% of the acute reference dose. The findings indicated that the occurrence of pesticide residues in litchis should not be considered a public health problem.