ETHYLENE-BIS- DITHIOCARBAMATES RESIDUES IN SOME FOOD AND THE POTENTIAL RISK FOR EGYPTIAN CONSUMERS

Dithiocarbamates are a non-systemic group of fungicides widely used to protect crops from fungal diseases. the current methodology used by monitoring laboratories to determine dithiocarbamates in food involves the analysis of cs_2 generated after hydrolysis of the compound present in the sample. a total of 535 food samples (apple, apricot, cantaloupe, cucumber, grape, grape leaf, green beans, green broccoli, green peas, lettuce, onion, orange, peach, pepper, plum, potatoes, squash, strawberry, tomato and watermelon) collected from eight egyptian local markets located in six governorates (cairo, giza, qalubiya, beni suef, minufiya, and ismalia) through the period from (2007 to 2008), were analyzed for dithiocarbamate content. overall, results showed that 413 samples (i.e. 77.2 %) of total number of samples analyzed (535) were free from dithiocarbamate expressed as cs_2. however, 122 samples (i.e. 22.8 %) of the total no. of all samples analyzed were contaminated with detectable levels of dithiocarbamate residues of which 1.3% exceeded the mrl of dithiocarbamate expressed as cs_2. the concentration levels of dithiocarbamate expressed as cs_2 ranged from the lowest level (0.2 mg/kg cs_2) to the highest levels (5.09 mg/kg). the highest violated samples were onion, followed by green peas, and pepper. an exposure assessment, based on dithiocarbamate levels detected in the food crops analyzed in this study, confirms that the intake of dithiocarbamates through food consumption in the country does not represent a health risk to consumers, i.e., the estimated daily intake is less than the acceptable daily intake. furthermore, the implementation of more selective methodologies to individually analyze these compounds in food monitoring programs in egypt is not necessary.