Dietary exposure to five highly polar pesticides of the Hong Kong population through a total diet study

Dietary exposure assessment of the Hong Kong adult and younger populations to five highly polar pesticides, namely ethephon, fosetyl aluminium, glyphosate, glufosinate ammonium and maleic hydrazide, was included in the second Hong Kong Total Diet Study (TDS). A total of 187 commonly consumed food items were collected and prepared “as consumed”. A total of 374 composite food samples were analysed for these five highly polar pesticides by modified Quick Polar Pesticides (QuPPe) method combined with LC-MS/MS. Related dietary exposure was estimated based on the analytical results and the food consumption data of the local residents. The results showed that 283 out of 374 composite samples were tested positive for these five highly polar pesticides, with a detection rate of 76%. The most commonly detected residue of these five highly polar pesticides was fosetyl aluminium (75%), while the remaining four were detected in less than 10% of composite samples. Fosetyl aluminium was found in a wide variety of food across all the food groups while the other highly polar pesticides were mainly found in the foods of plant origin, such as vegetables and cereals. In terms of contribution to the acceptable daily intakes (ADIs), glufosinate ammonium represented the highest upper-bound exposure for high consumers of both adult and younger populations, accounting for 4.2% and 6.6% of its ADI value, respectively. The findings of this study indicated that dietary exposure estimates to these five highly polar pesticides were unlikely to pose significant health risk to both average and high consumers of the Hong Kong adult and younger populations.