High and low temperature processing: Effective tool reducing pesticides in/on apple used in a risk assessment of dietary intake protocol. (February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rutkowska, Ewa; Wołejko, Elżbieta; Kaczyński, Piotr; Łuniewski, Stanisław; Łozowicka, Bożena
• Is Part Of: Chemosphere. Volume 313(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-02
• Subjects: Technological process -- Baking -- Freeze-drying -- Fungicide -- Apple -- Acute exposure; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Physiological effect -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Atmospheric chemistry -- Periodicals; 551.511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137498
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-6535

Abstract

Abstract: Apples play an important role in everyone's diet and may contain pesticide residues that can pose a significant health problem for consumers. Various technological processes are promising methods for minimizing pesticide concentrations in fruit. Therefore, the subject of this comprehensive study was to investigate the effects of high-temperature (baking) and low-temperature (freeze-drying) processes on the change in the levels of nine fungicides in apples with skin and peeled. The investigated compounds belong to the chemical groups of benzimidazole (thiophanate methyl and carbendazim), phtalimide (captan and their metabolite tetrahydrophtalimid (THPI)), strobilurin (pyraclostrobin, trifloxystrobin) and triazole (difenoconazole, tebuconazole, tetraconazole). Processing factors (PF) were calculated for each pesticide-process-product combination. The results show that baking and freeze-drying generally reduced pesticide concentrations, with PFs ranging from 0.31 to 0.81 and 0.26 to 0.68, respectively. Apart from freeze-drying for carbendazim and baking for captan, PFs were above 1. Only for thiophanate-methyl, a complete reduction was observed, which resulted from complete degradation to carbendazim. The study also aimed to assess human risk according to the new strategy for different sub-populations with conversion using the 36 PFs obtained. The highest acute exposure (expressed as %ARfD) was obtained for tebuconazole in raw apples (initial concentration of 1.42 mg/kg; 400% ARfD) for Dutch toddlers. After food processing, this decreased to 284% (0.74 mg/kg, baking) and to 137% (0.37 mg/kg, freeze-drying), but was still above the safety limit. Similarly, for adults and the general French population for tebuconazole, the %ARfD was high as it reached the values of 104% (initial concentration of 0.89 mg/kg) in unprocessed apples, 73.9% after baking (0.73 mg/kg) and 35.6% after freeze-drying (0.35 mg/kg). The results indicate that food processing techniques can potentially be used to minimize the hazardous effects of pesticide residues on human health. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Effects of low/high temperature processing evaluated for nine fungicides in apples. Greater pesticides reduction by freeze-drying in apples with skin and peeled. PFs of captan and carbendazim >1 after processing. Complete reduction observed for thiophanate methyl. Tebuconazole and tetraconazole as acute risk especially for children.