Tomato is highly cultivated vegetables consumed both as fresh salad and cooked in Andhra Pradesh, attacked by variety of insect pests, of which fruit borer is economically significant. Farmers use variety of pesticides, of which organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids are predominant. However, farmers are not looking at the safety intervals while harvesting the tomato thus resulting in pesticide residues in tomato at both farm gate and market points. Hence, it is essential to look for cheap and best method which can be adopted easily at home, thus keeping the requirement in mind, a study was planned to evaluate certain methods for removal of pesticide residues from tomato. Ripe tomato fruits (fresh, undamaged, stalks removed) were divided into lots, and each lot was dipped in 0.2% insecticide solutions (dimethoate, Methylparathion, profenophos, endosulfan) separately for 5 minutes and air dried on clean surface. The randomly selected fruits were analysed for initial deposit of pesticides, and each lot of pesticide treated sample was subjected to different decontamination methods viz., washing under running tap water, 2% salt solution, direct cooking, dipping in 2% salt solution and cooking and analysed for final remaining residues after treatment using validated QuEChERS method utilising GC-ECD, FPD and GC-MS. Cumulative effect of all four household process caused substantial reduction in residues up to 95%. However, cooking with pressure cooker for 5 minutes reduced pesticides from 30-93%.

The commercial production of highly cultivated and consumed brinjal is highly dependent on regular usage of insecticides to protect the crop from insect pests. The increased consumer awareness and legal issues on food safety, with special reference to insecticide residues in foods, led us to attempt for cheap and effective methods for removal of pesticide residues to address the issues of consumer and food safety, as the farmers are not following the Good Agricultural Practices i.e pre-harvest intervals. The most commonly used pesticides such as profenophos, chlorpyriphos, dimethoate, malathion, phosalone, quinalphos, triazophos and -cyhalothrin were sprayed at recommended doses at brinjal formation stage, samples were collected at 2 hours after treatment to quantify the deposits. The samples were subjected to various household treatments (tap water wash, lemon water wash, dipping in 2% salt water for 15 min, dipping in 2% tamarind water for 10 min, washing with 0.1% sodium bicarbonate solution, washing with 4% acetic acid solution, biowash, cooking), each in three replications, and analysed for residues using validated quick, easy cheap rugged and simple method (Quechers method and GC-ECD, (GAS Chromatography Electron capture detector) FPD(Flame photometric detector) and GC-MS(Gas Chromatography Mass spectrometry) so as to estimate the % removal and their effectiveness. Out of all treatments, dipping in 2% salt solution for 10 minutes is very effective in removing 45%, 43%, 52%, 50%, 54%, 48% and 76% of dimethoate, chlorpyriphos, quinalphos, profenophos, phosalone, -cyhalothrin and malathion, respectively, and cooking removed insecticides in the range 55-80%. Dipping fruits and vegetables in 2% salt solution for 15 minutes is the best household method for removal of pesticide residues, and also the method is effective in reducing the residues below MRL (Maximum Residue Limits).