Effects of ozone treatment on pesticide residues in food: a review

Abstract

Summary In agriculture, pesticide residues have always posed a major safety hazard to human health. With the development of agricultural production and improvements in science and technology, additional methods for degradation of pesticide residues have emerged. Amongst them, ozone treatment recently became a popular method owing to its outstanding technical advantages. This review is an in‐depth analysis of the mechanisms by which ozone treatment degrades pesticide residues. The main mechanism involves direct oxidation by oxygen atoms, and indirect oxidation driven by hydroxyl radicals. The effects of ozone treatment on pesticide residues in food with respect to the ozone concentration, duration of ozone treatment, type of food, variety of pesticides, level of pesticide residues and environmental factors have been discussed. Furthermore, the impact of ozone treatment on the quality of food is highlighted. Low levels of ozone result in minor changes to the visual and sensory characteristics of food. In addition, this article discusses several restrictions surrounding the current application of ozone treatment for the degradation of pesticide residues. More specifically, the most crucial issue is the potential toxicity of ozonation byproducts generated by the process, which is also the current focus of research on ozone treatment for the degradation of pesticide residues. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of ozone treatment, it is recommended as a method of degrading pesticide residues.

Effect of different ozone treatments on the degradation of deoxynivalenol and flour quality in Fusarium-contaminated wheat

“…It can get around the shortcomings of common chemical methods in food safety (Panagiota & Graham, 2002;Thalmann et al, 2018). In recent years, extensive studies have turned the spotlight on the use of ozone in sterilization (Dhillon et al, 2009), disinsection (Piemontese et al, 2018), pesticide residue (S. Wang et al, 2019), and toxin degradation in grain processing . Ozone gas is very effective in deactivating wheat-related fungi, and the ozone dose required to cause significant inactivation of fungi is much lower than the threshold for destroying the germination ability of wheat (Wu et al, 2006).…”

Low concentration short time ozonation of rapeseed seeds reduces the stability of the oil and content of some antioxidant components

“…In addition, it decomposes secondary metabolic products of fungi – mycotoxins and prevent their re‐formation of the storage process (Luo et al ., ; Trombete et al ., ). Ozone treatment is also reported to have capability to degrade pesticide residues (Kırış & Velioglu, ; De Souza et al ., ; Wang et al ., ). Ozonation is an innovative way to preserve high quality of seed during storage and it is an alternative to harmful organophosphorus agents.…”

Effect of dielectric barrier discharge plasma on the degradation of malathion and chlorpyrifos on lettuce

“…To reduce the potential health risks of pesticide residues in foods, various technologies have been developed, including ultrasound, 6,7 microorganisms, 8 ozonation, 9–11 ultraviolet irradiation 12 and chlorine 13,14 . Although some of these methods degraded pesticide residues in foods to a certain extent, they still suffer from low efficiency, formation of by‐products, and damage to the flavor, color and texture of products 15 .…”