Pesticide Residues in Prune Processing

Abstract

Prunes are processed in three phases: washing, drying, and rehydration, which is performed immediately before packing. The entire drying process was subdivided into six steps. In this paper each of these steps was studied separately in order to determine which could be accountable for residue changes. The studied pesticides were diazinon, bitertanol, iprodione, phosalone, and procymidone. Although the drying process caused a fruit concentration factor of 3, the pesticide residues on the dried fruits were not higher than on the fresh fruits. Phosalone showed the same residue, while the values for procymidone, iprodione, and bitertanol were respectively 0.6, 2.3, and 3.2 times lower. The changes in residue values caused by the different steps were not the same in the different pesticides. Keywords: Prunes; drying process; pesticides; residues