Pesticide residues evaluation of organic crops. A critical appraisal
María del Mar Gómez‐Ramos, Christina Nannou, María Jesús Martínez Bueno, Ana Goday, María Murcia‐Morales, Carmen Ferrer, Amadeo R. Fernández‐Alba
Abstract
In the last decade, the consumption trend of organic food has increased dramatically worldwide. Since only a few pesticides are authorized in organic crops, concentrations are expected to range at zero or ultra-trace levels. In this context, the aim of the present study was to investigate the need for an improvement in the residue controls at very low concentrations (<0.010 mg kg−1) and to assess the impact of the scope of the analytical methods for this type of crops. For that purpose, a monitoring study for fruit and vegetable samples covering a wide range of pesticides (3 2 8) at low LOQs (0.002–0.005 mg kg−1) was developed. The results showed that the impact of applying analytical methods with low LOQs was not very relevant in the majority of the cases. However, a wide scope presented a high influence on this evaluation, especially regarding the inclusion of very polar compounds and metabolites.