How to Remove Organophosphorus Pesticide Residues from Vegetables

Abstract

The effects of household processing on removal of organophosphate residues (malathion, fenitrothion, formothion, parathion, methyl parathion and chlorpyriphos) in tomato, bean, okra, eggplant, cauliflower and capsicum were studied. The processes included washing separately with (water, 0.9% NaCl, 0.1% NaHCO₃ and 0.1% acetic acid, 0.001% KMnO₄, 0.1% ascorbic acid, 0.1% malic acid and 0.1% oxalic acid and 2% aqueous solution of raw Spondias pinnata (SP) and boiling. In all of the vegetables, washing with different household chemicals reduced the Organophosphorous residues (OPs) by 20-89% and boiling reduced the residues by 52-100%.