Risk assessment of the intake of pesticides in Croatian diet

A total of 866 samples of 28 different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables from import and domestic production were analyzed. In 67.1% of the samples no residues were found, 27.3% of samples contained pesticide residues at or below maximum residue limit (MRL), and 5.6% of samples contained pesticide residues above MRL. In this study, the exposure to pesticide residues through fruit and vegetable consumption is evaluated based on the 2007-2009 surveillance data. According to the results the long-term exposure of consumers did not raise health concerns. The short-term exposure assessment revealed that for 12 food samples analyzed the acute reference dose (ARfD) might have been exceeded if the food sample was consumed in high amounts. The short-term risk assessment could not be performed for 7 pesticides because there are no available data on acute reference doses. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.