Pyrethroid residues in Indonesian cocoa powder: Method development, analysis and risk assessment

While pyrethroids and other pesticide residues in cocoa beans have been reported previously, no report on pesticide residues in cocoa powder has been documented. In this paper, pyrethroids residues in cocoa powder were investigated. First, a simple method was specifically built and validated for cocoa powder pyrethroid analysis. The method only employs low volume extraction and d-SPE clean-up before quantification. The line-arity of the method was good (r 0.9992) for lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin, cypermethrin, fenvalerate and deltamethrin. The repeatability (%RSD) and accuracy (% recovery) are acceptable. For the reproducibility, no significant differences were found between two analysts who conducted the same experiment. Weak matrix effect (<20%) were observed. The limits of quantifications (LoQs) were all below the maximum residue limits (MRLs), accounted for 10 mu g/kg for lambda-cyhalothrin and deltamethrin, 20 mu g/kg for cypermethrin and fenvalerate, and 30 mu g/kg for permethrin. The validated method was then used to analyze cocoa powder samples from 10 major cocoa producing provinces in Indonesia with none exceeded the LoQs or MRLs. The risk assessment suggests that even at concentrations of the LoQs, the short-term and long-term non-carcinogenic effects associated to Indonesian cocoa powder consumption are unlikely. Therefore, cocoa powder originated from Indonesia is safe for consumption.

Automated summary

This study investigated pyrethroid residues in cocoa powder and validated a simple analytical method for analysis. The results showed that cocoa powder samples from Indonesia are safe for consumption as pesticide residues are below maximum residue limits.