Determination of Diazinon residue levels on Cherry, Cerasus avium supplied to Tehran central fruit and vegetable market

Some of the top decision makers in the ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, ministry of Health and the Department of the environment emphasize on a ban on genetically modified products and are in favor of continuous use of synthetic pesticides while over 170 million hectare of the transgenic products are cultivated all around the world. To determine the diazinon residue level in sweet cherry, 40 samples were collected from Tehran Central Market. These products were produced in five main cherry producing cities such as Lavasan, Shahriar, Qazvin, Mashhad and Urumia. Samples were prepared and extracted by the standard method of QuEChERS. The GC/ MS analysis was used to determine the levels of Diazinon residue in the samples. The amount of pesticides measured was compared with the national and Codex MRLs. 10% of the samples contained Diazinon residue levels higher than the MRL value (0.05 mg/ kg) including 4 samples from Mashhad (0.3 mg/kg) and Lavasan (0.29 mg/kg). The remaining samples (90%) had no detectable residue levels of this insecticide. The results obtained in this study can be used for the future planning of pesticides application in the high risk areas of the country. Therefore, the continuous blockade of taking advantage of alternative products and methodologies which could reduce the pesticide usage like production of transgenic plants may result in the production of toxic food baskets for the consumers which may result in the spread of incurable diseases in the society.