Dietary risk assessment of pesticide residues in cowpeas from Hainan province of China

This study aims to provide insights into the current status of pesticide residue contamination in Hainan province and to develop food safety regulations for controlling the excessive use of pesticides on cowpea. First, to assess the dietary exposure risks of pesticide residues in Hainan cowpea, more than 340 pesticides in 80 different fresh cowpea samples were investigated by HPLC-Q-TOF/MS/MS. Further, to indicate the health hazards of pesticide residues on consumers, the index of food safety (IFS) and risk coefficient (R) that stand for cumulative and simultaneous effects of different pesticides were calculated. A total of 56 kinds of pesticides were found in all 80 cowpea samples, and the positive rate was as high as 71 % in all samples. The results showed that the detectable rate of pesticide residues in cowpea samples were 100 % (80/80), and over 56 pesticides were detected to exceed the detection limits. In terms of IFS (<1), the safety risk of Hainan cowpeas is acceptable, but the R values of carbendazim and other 11 kinds of pesticide residues is much higher than safety level (R>1.5). These findings indicate a potential high risk of pesticide residues in Hainan cowpea, which reflect the importance of continuous monitoring and daily supervision of cowpea in Hainan.