Dietary exposure and risk assessment of boscalid residue in pumpkin, asparagus, hawthorn, mango, and papaya

In order to evaluate the safety risk of boscalid in pumpkin, asparagus, hawthorn, mango, and papaya, supervised residue field trial was conducted. In this study, the samples were pretreated using QuEChERS method and quantitatively analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The final residues in the tested crops were detected. Then, a comparative analysis of long-term intake risk assessment using two different diets was conducted. When the spiked levels were 0.01, 0.1, 3 mg/kg in pumpkin, the spiked levels were 0.01, 0.1, 20 mg/kg in asparagus, the spiked levels were 0.01, 0.1, 60 mg/kg in hawthorn, the spiked levels were 0.01, 0.1, 4 mg/kg in mango, and the spiked levels were 0.01, 0.1, 10 mg/kg in papaya, the average recoveries of boscalid varied from 79% to 101%, with the relative standard deviations (RSD) between 2% to 14%. Based on the dietary consumption data from the Chinese nutrition and health status monitoring survey, national estimates daily intake (NEDI) of boscalid was 0.707 5 mg/(kg bw), and the risk quotient (RQ) was 28.1%. However, if the individual dietary intake of each agricultural product provided by WHO was considered, the daily intake of boscalid was 0.128 2 mg/(kg bw), RQ was 5.1%. The reason for the difference of those two results is that the food consumption data used in dietary exposure assessment in China is based on the types of agricultural products, rather than the specific consumption of a single agricultural product, which will lead to the over-conservative assessment of the risk. Therefore, it is suggested that relevant departments should put more effort to the investigation and monitoring of residents' nutrition and health status, and provide specific dietary consumption data for each agricultural product, so as to facilitate scientific evaluation of the health risk of pesticides to humans.