Multiresidue analysis and dietary intake risk assessment of 29 pesticides in banana from five provinces of southern China

The present study utilized a combined quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe (QuEChERS) method with ultra performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) to detect and quantify pesticide residues in both whole banana fruit and pulp samples collected from five provinces in southern China between June 2018 and December 2021. The analysis identified the occurrence of 29 widely used insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides on bananas, including organophosphates, organochlorines, pyrethroids, triazoles, etc. The limits of quantification for the pesticides analyzed in the banana matrix ranged from 1.0 to 5.0 mu g/kg. Among the 501 samples collected, the detection rates of pesticides in whole fruit and pulp samples were 65.1 % and 40.9 %, respectively. Specifically, 20 kinds of pesticides were detected in whole fruit samples, while 16 were detected in pulp samples. Furthermore, imidacloprid was detected across various regions and years. The evaluation of risk of hazard quotient (HQ) to the identified pesticides in whole fruit and pulp samples revealed values ranging from 0.0016-0.0313 and 0.0002-0.0131, respectively. Overall, the results suggest that the detected pesticide residues in bananas are unlikely to pose an unacceptable health risk to consumers of different age groups in China.