Abstract

Persistence Of Pesticides Applied Pre-Harvest On Citrus Fruits

Author(s): R.Salghi, A.Hormatallah, L.Bazzi

Pesticides residues analyses from 83 samples pick up from 20 packinghouses in the area of Souss Valley, in the southern part of Morocco, revealed that out of 83 samples only 1 sample was found to have slightly higher residues for chloropyriphos ethyl. All other results showed the presence of pesticides at various levels but within the EU regulation. The compounds frequently found are methidathion, chloropyriphos ethyl, malathion, dimethoate and parathion-methyl respectively at a rate of 43%, 33%, 11%, 7% and 4% of the number of samples. The study on the dissipation of some pesticides in fruits showed that chloropyriphos ethyl is more persistent in the fruit and requires about 80 days from the application date to reach a value of residue equal or lower than authorized RML for the pesticide for EU markets. In contrast, only 7 days from the time of application are necessary for methidathion, malathion and dimethoate to reach the acceptable limit.