Pollution level and risk assessment of pesticide residues in ready-to-drink tea beverages.

Abstract

The health risks caused by exposure to pesticides through ready-to-drink (RTD) tea beverage are the focus of global food safety concerns. Herein, 141 pesticide residues in 123 RTD tea beverages were monitored using UPLC-MS/MS. The results showed that nine pesticides were detected in 67.5% of these samples within the range of 0.21-5.33 μg/L, of which dinotefuran and acetamiprid showed the highest detection frequencies. The pesticide detection rate was the highest in RTD oolong tea beverages, followed by RTD green, jasmine, black, white and Pu'er tea beverages. Based on hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) assessment, the risk for human health with nine detected pesticides was very low (<0.1), indicating that the risk of pesticide residues in RTD tea beverage was acceptable for adults and children. Thus, this study provides basic data for dietary exposure risk assessment for RTD tea beverages.