Multiresidue analysis of insecticides and fungicides in apples from the Greek market. Applying an alternative approach for risk assessment.

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture and their proven high toxicity makes the need of monitoring their presence in food imperative. A multi residue method is applied in apples samples (81) collected from the Greek market for the monitoring of 40 analytes. Pesticides levels were evaluated by gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry using a QuEChERs protocol. Risk for consumers was assessed by a newly developed methodology, employing the source related Hazard Quotient (HQs) and the adversity specific Hazard Index (HI). The 84% of the apple's samples were positive for at least one pesticide, 21% for one pesticide, 55.6% for two to four pesticide residues and 7.4% for more than 4 pesticide residues. The most frequently detected compound was carbendazim (45.7%) followed by chlorpyrifos (44.4.0%). The mean detected concentration levels varied from 0.169 ppm (fluopyram) to 0.005 ppm (triazophos). 19 of the 40 investigated pesticides were not detected in any apple sample. For all individual pesticides, the source related Hazard Quotient (HQs) was <1 indicating no risk. HI, resulting from the sum of all HQs was found HI < 1 in nine out of ten toxicity groups, except to the neurotoxicity group, which presented HI 2.258, indicating moderate risk.