Effect of Food Processing on Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables Evaluated by Meta-analysis
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Abstract:
A meta-analysis approach was used to study the effects of food processing on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. The response ratios, confidence intervals, and intra assay coefficients of variation for the effects of specific food processing methods on the pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables were obtained via literature search using multiple databases, data collection, and meta-analysis; the homogeneity of the data was examined by Q-statistic. The results indicated that the collect data were homogeneous and all the response ratios from the processing methods, including washing with tap water, washing with various solutions, peeling, boiling, frying, blanching, and baking, were all less than 0.6, indicating that the food processing methods mentioned in the paper showed optimum effects on the removal of the pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, with a removal rate of up to 40%. Among these, the response ratios of blanching and baking were 0.04 and 0.01, respectively, showing that both methods effectively removed pesticide residues (a removal rate of more than 95%). Compared with tap water washing, washing with acetic acid solution, sodium chloride solution, sodium carbonate solution or sodium bicarbonate solution showed a favorable effect in the removal of pesticide residues. The response ratios reflecting the effect of the food processing on the pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables were obtained by a meta-analysis approach, which has applications in food safety risk assessment. This method can also serve as a guide for fruit and vegetable consumption.
