Determination, distribution and potential health risk assessment of insecticides and acaricides in citrus fruits of China

In this study, residues and potential health risks of 16 commonly used insecticides and acaricides in 1633 citrus samples from nine cultivars in China were systematically analyzed. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method combined with gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was applied. In total, 77.3% of the samples were with residues, of which 57.7% contained 2–12 multi-residues. Etoxazole and chlorpyrifos were the top two detected pesticides with detection frequencies of 37.1% and 31.1%, respectively. Residues of eight analytes were over their MRLs with exceeding rates of 0.1%− 2.4%. The safety of the nine cultivars ranked as lemon > pummelo > ponkan > satsuma mandarin > orange > citrus hybrids > ‘nanfengmiju’ mandarin > ‘shatangju’ mandarin > kumquat according to IqR values and related to the producing areas. Chronic dietary risks of the 16 insecticides and acaricides were negligible low for Chinese consumers. However, %ARfD of triazophos in most citrus cultivars for all population and of bifenthrin in ‘nanfengmiju’ mandarin for children were beyond the acceptable levels, which indicated potential acute health risks. Application of triazophos, bifenthrin, profenofos and etoxazole in citrus should be controlled.