Effects of the cooking modes on commonly used pesticides residue in vegetables and their chronic dietary exposure risk in South China

Effect of Stir-Frying, Boiling, and Baking on Hexaconazole Residue Levels in Welsh Onion (Allium fistulosum L.)

Hexaconazole, a triazole insecticide, is widely used to control rust disease in Welsh onions. Residue levels of pesticides vary based on the cooking methods. Although studies on hexaconazole residue have involved vegetables such as cabbage, research on Welsh onion is limited. This study investigated the effect of different cooking methods on hexaconazole residues. Welsh onion was processed by common cooking methods such as stir-frying, boiling, and baking, and analyzed for pesticide residues using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that the removal rates of pesticides after cooking were 40.0-62.9% for stir-frying, 80.0-91.4% for boiling, and 51.4-77.1% for baking. Regardless of cutting thickness (0.8 cm or 5 cm), the reduction rate of pesticide residues increased with time during boiling. Increased reduction rates were also observed with increased time during baking. As stir-frying time increased, the residue amount increased due to water loss. However, the absolute amount of the pesticide decreased with increasing time. Therefore, the residue amount of hexaconazole in Welsh onion was reduced by various general cooking processes. These findings can provide a valuable foundation for research on Welsh onion processing, address consumer concerns about pesticide residues, and provide baseline data for risk assessments.

Fates and models for exposure pathways of pyrethroid pesticide residues: A review

Pyrethroids (PYs) are widely applied pesticides whose residues pose potential health risks. This review describes current knowledge on PY chemical properties, usage patterns, environmental and food contamination, and human exposure models. It evaluates life cycle assessment (LCA), chemical alternatives assessment (CAA), and high-throughput screening (HTS) as tools for pesticide policy. Despite efforts to mitigate PY presence, their pervasive residues in the environment and food persist. And the highest concentrations ranged from 54,360 to 80,500 ng/L in water samples from agricultural fields. Food processing techniques variably reduce PY levels, yet no method guarantees complete elimination. This review provides insights into the fates and exposure pathways of PY residues in agriculture and food, and highlights the necessity for improved PY management and alternative practices to safeguard health and environment.

Consumer Awareness and Health Risk Perceptions of Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables in Kampala Metropolitan Area in Uganda

Consumer awareness of the presence of pesticides in fruits and vegetables and associated health risks influences the actions they undertake to reduce their exposure. This study was carried out to explore consumers' awareness of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables and perceptions towards associated health effects in Kampala Metropolitan Area (KMA) in Uganda. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were done with fruit and vegetables consumers in KMA. The FGDs consisted of females and males living in urban and rural areas. Discussions were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were coded inductively and analysed using conventional content analysis. Consumers were aware of the presence of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. Non-compliance to good agricultural practices, desire to produce good quality fruits and vegetables, and conflict of interest were thought to be the underlying reasons for the contamination. Consumers thought that their health is at risk of chronic and acute health effects, and that this risk is unavoidable. They emphasized that long term exposure to the pesticide residues puts them at risk of conditions like reproductive defects and noncommunicable diseases like cancer, hypertension, obesity, kidney and heart diseases among others. To reduce the risk, consumers were aware of and relied on mitigation measures including washing, peeling, drying and cooking or applied them in combination. Consumers were aware of the presence of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, potential short and long term health risks due to exposure, and domestic processing methods to reduce health risks. There is need for authorities to ensure adherence to good agricultural practices and ensure that farmers and consumers understand that pesticide are used to control pests and disease but not to primarily increase shelf life of fruits and vegetables.

Boiling, Blanching, and Stir-Frying Markedly Reduce Pesticide Residues in Vegetables

Nowadays, a lot of produce (fruits and vegetables) sold in many countries are contaminated with pesticide residues, which cause severe effects on consumer health, such as cancer and neurological disorders. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether cooking processes can reduce the pesticide residues in commonly consumed vegetables (Chinese kale and yard long beans) in Thailand. For cooking experiments, the two vegetables were cooked using three different processes: boiling, blanching, and stir-frying. After the treatments, all cooked and control samples were subjected to extraction and GC-MS/MS analysis for 88 pesticides. The results demonstrated that pesticide residues were reduced by 18–71% after boiling, 36–100% after blanching, and 25–60% after stir-frying for Chinese kale. For yard long beans, pesticide residues were reduced by 38–100% after boiling, 27–28% after blanching, and 35–63% after stir-frying. Therefore, cooking vegetables are proven to protect consumers from ingesting pesticide residues.

Security Risk Level Prediction of Carbofuran Pesticide Residues in Chinese Vegetables Based on Deep Learning

The supervision of security risk level of carbofuran pesticide residues can guarantee the food quality and security of residents effectively. In order to predict the potential key risk vegetables and regions, this paper constructs a security risk assessment model, combined with the k-means++ algorithm, to establish the risk security level. Then the evaluation index value of the security risk model is predicted to determine the security risk level based on the deep learning model. The model consists of a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a long short-term memory network (LSTM) optimized by an arithmetic optimization algorithm (AOA), namely, CNN-AOA-LSTM. In this paper, a comparative experiment is conducted on a small sample data set of independently constructed security risk assessment indicators. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the CNN-AOA-LSTM prediction model based on attention mechanism is 6.12% to 18.99% higher than several commonly used deep neural network models (gated recurrent unit, LSTM, and recurrent neural networks). The prediction model proposed in this paper provides scientific reference to establish the priority order of supervision, and provides forward-looking supervision for the government.

Effect of household processing on pesticide residues in post-harvested tomatoes: determination of the risk exposure and modeling of experimental results via RSM

This study aimed to investigate the acute and chronic hazard quotients of chlorpyrifos and diazinon for tomatoes in preharvest and postharvest conditions, and to evaluate the relationship between the main variables, including temperature and contact time and pesticide dissipation at different conditions using response surface methodology for the first time. The qualification analyses were conducted by a gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The Monte Carlo simulation technique was utilized to evaluate the variability and uncertainty and achieve more accurate results in the health risk assessment process. A quadratic model and the second-order polynomial analysis were employed to investigate the mutual effect of time and temperature on removing diazinon and chlorpyrifos. Based on findings, the chronic hazard quotient values of chlorpyrifos and diazinon residues ranged from 0.43 - 1.33 to 0.13 - 2.27 for boiling, 0.65 - 1.49 to 3.05 - 7.15 for room condition, and 0.63 - 1.92 to 3.28 - 7.47 for refrigerator condition, respectively. According to the Monte Carlo simulation, the hazard quotient and estimated daily intake values were more affected by the consumption rate, pesticide concentration, and body weight. The results of response surface methodology showed that the effect of temperature variations on the dissipation of both pesticides was more than that of contact time variations.

Science and Healthy Meals in the World: Nutritional Epigenomics and Nutrigenetics of the Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet (MD), UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, has become a scientific topic of high interest due to its health benefits. The aim of this review is to pick up selected studies that report nutrigenomic or nutrigenetic data and recapitulate some of the biochemical/genomic/genetic aspects involved in the positive health effects of the MD. These include (i) the antioxidative potential of its constituents with protective effects against several diseases; (ii) the epigenetic and epigenomic effects exerted by food components, such as Indacaxanthin, Sulforaphane, and 3-Hydroxytyrosol among others, and their involvement in the modulation of miRNA expression; (iii) the existence of predisposing or protective human genotypes due to allelic diversities and the impact of the MD on disease risk. A part of the review is dedicated to the nutrigenomic effects of the main cooking methods used in the MD and also to a comparative analysis of the nutrigenomic properties of the MD and other diet regimens and non-MD-related aliments. Taking all the data into account, the traditional MD emerges as a diet with a high antioxidant and nutrigenomic modulation power, which is an example of the “Environment-Livings-Environment” relationship and an excellent patchwork of interconnected biological actions working toward human health.