Monitoring of Residual Pesticides in Commercial Agricultural Products in Korea

Abstract

We tested for residual pesticide levels in agricultural products purchased from 5 provinces within the middle region of Korea during 2006. A Total of 488 samples of 23 different types of agricultural products were analyzed by GC/MS, GC-NPD, and LC/MS/MS. We used multi-analysis methods to analyze for 231 different pesticide types; a single residual pesticides were detected in 92 samples (18.9%), of which 9 samples (1.9%) exceeded the Korea Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs). we detected pesticide residue in more than 50% of the pepper leaf and welsh onion samples. For the welsh onions, 16 among the 30 analyzed samples contained pesticide residue, and 4 samples exceeded the Korea MRLs. Among the 234 kinds of pesticides we tested for, 42 were detected, and 21 of them were detected more than twice. Six pesticide residue types, including cypermethrin, iprodione, fludioxonil, ethoprophos, flutolanil, and lufenuron, exceeded the MRLs. No residual pesticides were detected in 396 of the samples (81.1%), and the residual pesticide levels in 83 samples (17.0%) were lower than the Korea MRLs, indicating that 98.1% of the samples were relatively safe.