Insights on Degradation, Processing Factors, and Risk Assessment of Pesticide Pymetrozine, Spirotetramat, and Its Four Metabolites on Goji Berry: “Third Pole” Medicine and Food Homologous Crop

Abstract

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture, and agricultural commodities are generally consumed as processed foods. How effective these processing procedures are at removing pesticide residues is not well understood. We report initial concentrations of one pesticide that is used extensively on crops of Goji berries, spirotetramat (and its four metabolites: spirotetramat-enol, spirotetramat-enol-glucoside, spirotetramat-monohydroxy, and spirotetramat-keto-hydroxy), and pymetrozine, to be 231.31, 297.42, 229.15, 252.33, 292.73, and 83.18 μg kg^–1, respectively. Only 0.18–3.18% of pesticides were eliminated from produce by maceration and washing. Pesticide reduction during processing was 21.23–58.72% (traditional methods), 33.86–73.66% (by cooking samples), and 71.24–90.23% (through vinification), with corresponding processing factors (PFs), a measure of how processing technique affects pesticide residue levels, 0.111–0.771, 0.016–2.33, and 0.008–43.1. For traditional methods, in particular, the PFs of pesticides were 1.77–43.1, suggesting that considerable pesticide enrichment occurred. Combined with the field trial and PF residue data, the acute and chronic dietary risks of pesticides using these processing methods ranged 0.031–1.83 and 0.002–2.51%, respectively. This study provides basic information that can be used to evaluate the potential risks to health of exposure to pesticide residues.