Risk assessment of the intake of pesticides in Croatian diet

A total of 866 samples of 28 different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables from import and domestic production were analyzed. In 67.1% of the samples no residues were found, 27.3% of samples contained pesticide residues at or below maximum residue limit (MRL), and 5.6% of samples contained pesticide residues above MRL. In this study, the exposure to pesticide residues through fruit and vegetable consumption is evaluated based on the 2007–2009 surveillance data. According to the results the long-term exposure of consumers did not raise health concerns. The short-term exposure assessment revealed that for 12 food samples analyzed the acute reference dose (ARfD) might have been exceeded if the food sample was consumed in high amounts. The short-term risk assessment could not be performed for 7 pesticides because there are no available data on acute reference doses.