A Review of Pesticide Residues in Agricultural and Food Products of Iran

Background & Objectives: The implementation of pest control strategies is essential for reducing food waste and providing fresh safe food product. However, the excessive and uncontrolled usage of pesticides have caused serious environmental and health problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of pesticide residues in food products in Iran via exploring the relevant published works. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted through online databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Science direct and SID to identify the abstracts and titles of the relevant papers using English or Farsi keywords including ‘pesticide residues’, ‘Iran’ and ‘food’ or their Farsi equivalents. Results: So far, several studies have investigated the level of pesticides contamination in different foods and food materials in Iran, which the majority of them evaluated the foods of vegetal origin like cucumber, tomato, melon, etc. Different types of pesticides, including organophosphorus, pyrethroids and organochlorines, were assessed in those studies, where organochlorines were the main tested pesticides in foods of animal origin. According to this review, in some foods of vegetal and animal origin some illegal levels of pesticides can still be seen in different regions of the country. Conclusion: Although the residues of pesticides in food material is an important issue, it seems that the national efforts for determination of those substances in different foodstuffs are inadequate. This indicates that the national food safety authorities and researchers need to be more serious about improving the present status regarding food application of pesticides.