Mitigation of pesticide residues in fruit juice using chitosan clarification: GC-based quantification

This research investigates the efficiency of chitosan in removing multiple pesticide residues from fruit juice and evaluates the resulting changes in its chemical and nutritional composition. Pesticides are major contaminants that pose risks to both food safety and the environment. In this study, the pesticide clarification capacity (PCC) of chitosan was examined using fruit juice samples fortified with five organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs): dimethoate, parathion, malathion, pirimiphos-methyl and phosalone. The fortified juice samples were clarified with chitosan at different concentrations (0.05% to 1%) and clarification times (15 to 90 min). PCC was determined by quantifying pesticide residues using a modified QuEChERS extraction method followed by GC-MS/MS analysis. The method was validated in accordance with SANTE/11813/2021 guidelines. Maximum mean pesticide removal (92%) and the highest total PCC (4610 × 10-5 g/hL of juice) were achieved using 0.5% chitosan for 75 min of clarification. A correlation was observed between pesticide removal efficiency and the hydrophobic properties of the pesticides. Quality parameters of the juice were also evaluated and were found to improve following chitosan clarification. Kinetic analysis was performed using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. Overall, the findings demonstrate that chitosan is a promising clarifying agent for mitigating multiple pesticide residues in fruit juice while simultaneously enhancing its quality.