Survey on Pesticide Residues in Commercial Agricultural Products in the Northern Area of Seoul

In an effort to evaluate the currents in pesticide residues, 3,020 agricultural products were tested by multiresidue method with 260 pesticides, obtained from the circulation market of in the Gangbuk province in 2007.20.4%(616/3020) of the products were determined to contain pesticides residues, but only 4.1%(124/3020) of these were deemed to be unsuitable by the korea Food Code. Unsuitably products were spinach(21.0%), perilla leaf(17.3%), ulgari(13.6%), leek(12.4%), crowndaisy(12.4%), asterscaber(12.4%), chard(11.1%). Detected pesticides were procymidone(3.9%), endosulfan(2.6%), chlorfenapyr(2.2%), bifenthrin(1.3%), cypermethrin(0.7%), metalaxyl(0.9%), azoxystrobin(0.3%) and chlorothalonil(0.7%). Sixty-four pesticides were detected and 11 pesticides were newly detected in 2007. Thirty-one pesticides in agricultural products exceeded their MRLs.