Organochlorines

Organochlorinated pesticides (OCPs) constitute a structurally and chemically diverse class of agrochemicals that have a contention history because of their adverse effects on both human health and the environment. The toxic, physical, and chemical properties of OCPs are such that they are of global concern and are among the group of chemicals that are referred to as Persistent Organic Pollutants. Despite efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of OCPs through the so-called Stockholm Convention more than two decades ago, the intense and widespread historic use of these agrochemicals presents a food safety risk because of their persistence in the environments in which food is farmed and sourced from the wild and also because of the phenomenon known as biomagnification in which the concentration of a chemical contaminant increases up the food chain hierarchy. The phenomenon has particular food safety implications for infants because of the transfer of OCPs into breast milk and cow’s which used as the base ingredient for infant formulas. Consequently, multiresidue methods based on mass spectrometric detectors have developed and validated to survey foods for the purpose of enforcing regulatory limits for OCPs. This article summarizes historical and environment aspects of OCPs, their chemical and biological properties, regulations that govern their use and presence in foods, preferred analytical methods, and risk management strategies to control the hazards associated with this class of persistent organic pollutants.