Chlorine dioxide treatment for the removal of pesticide residues on fresh lettuce and in aqueous solution

The effectiveness of chlorine dioxide (CD) to remove phorate and diazinon residues on fresh lettuce and in aqueous solution was investigated. The results indicated that CD (20 mg/L) added in tap water can significantly improve the removal of phorate and diazinon on lettuce (p < 0.05), as compared to tap water wash. The study in aqueous solutions suggested that addition of CD could increase the removal rates of phorate and diazinon by 40–80% and 10–20% more than that in tap water without CD, respectively, indicating CD can result in the degradation of the both pesticides. The removal of the both pesticides in aqueous solutions was influenced by concentration of CD, pH value, treatment time, initial concentration and kind of pesticides. The degradation efficiency increased with the concentration of CD and treatment time, and the least removal rates of the both pesticides were obtained in the aqueous solution at pH 4.6. Furthermore, the lower initial concentration of pesticides, the higher degradation rate would be obtained. The degradation kinetics of both pesticides were fitted to the first-order kinetics model well, and the kinetics parameters indicated that phorate was much easier to be degraded than diazinon. The degradation products of both pesticides were identified by GC–MS, phorate and diazinon were oxidized to phorate sulfoxide and phoratoxon sulfoxide, diazoxon, respectively. The present study validates the application of CD treatment as a safe and promising method for the removal of pesticides on fresh fruits and vegetables.