Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Green Tea produced in Korea

Herein, we present the results of our investigation of 61 pesticide residues in 100 samples of green teas obtained from Korean markets. Bifenthrin, chlorpyrifos, dicofol, EPN, chlorfenapyr, tebuconazole, cyhalothrin, difenoconazole, and tebufenpyrad were detected in 22 of the 100 green tea samples. The quantity of pesticide residues for bifenthrin was 0.12 ppm (maximum residue limits (MRLs): 0.3 ppm) in one sample, chlorpyrifos was 0.24-0.78 ppm (MRLs: 2.0 ppm) in three samples, dicofol was 1.64-4.19 ppm (MRLs: 50.0 ppm) in two samples, EPN was 0.13 ppm (MRLs: 0.05 ppm) in one sample, chlorfenapyr was 0.01-1.23 ppm (MRLs: 3.0 ppm) in 16 samples, tebuconazole was 0.71 ppm (MRLs: 5.0 ppm) in one sample, cyhalothrin was 0.05-0.3 ppm (MRLs: 2.0 ppm) in five samples, difenoconazole was 0.23 ppm (MRLs: 2.0 ppm) in one sample, and tebufenpyrad was 0.06-0.07 ppm (MRLs: 2.0 ppm) in two samples. More than two pesticide residues were detected in seven samples. All detected pesticide residues (with the exception of EPN) were within the MRLs.