Pesticides in fruits and vegetables from the Souss Massa region, Morocco

Abstract

This survey reports the monitoring of multi-pesticide residues of some fruits and vegetables sold in the local markets, sampled in 2018–2019, in the Souss Massa region in Morocco. A QuEChERS-LC-MS/MS method for 202 pesticides, belonging to different classes (carbamates, organophosphorus and organonitrogen pesticides) was applied and 51 samples were randomly bought from the local market, belonging to different products (tomato, cucumber, coriander, apricot, parsley, potato, zucchini, green bean, lettuce, strawberry and orange) and analysed for pesticide residues, which were detected in 69% of the samples, below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for some pesticides which represent 14% of the targeted compounds. The most frequently detected compounds were acetamiprid, acibenzolar-s-methyl, abamectin, azoxystrobin, bifenazate, bitertanol, bromuconazole, butoxycarboxim, cyromazine, difenoconazole, epoxiconazole, fenbuconazole, fluometuron, linuron, metaflumizone, metconazole, metribuzin, myclobutanil, pirimicarb, pyraclostrobin, propamocarb, rotenone, trichlorfon, tebuconazole, tetraconazole, thiamethoxam and thiophanate-methyl. The obtained results provide a value to the situation of pesticide residues in Morocco.