Residual ethylene dibromide and inorganic bromide levels in some fruit and vegetables after fumigation with ethylene dibromide or methyl bromide

Abstract

Residues of ethylene dibromide (EDB) were determined at periods up to seven days after fumigation of capsicum, mango, papaw, passionfruit, pumpkin and zucchini. Residues of inorganic bromide were also determined at periods up to seven days after EDB fumigation for capsicum, cucumber, mango, papaw and passionfruit. All commercially recommended EDB treatments, with the exception of that for zucchini, resulted in EDB residues at three days from 6 to 16 times the recommended maximum residue limit (MRL) of 0.1 mg kg-1, specified for a with-holding period of two days. All the inorganic bromide residues determined up to seven days after EDB fumigation were below the current recommended MRL values. Inorganic bromide residues were also determined for avocadoes fumigated with methyl bromide. After seven days the residues for full ripe fruit slightly exceeded the recommended MRL of 75 mg kg-1, while thosefor mature green and for mixed green and ripe fruit were slightly less than the recommended MRL.

An electron capture gas chromatographic method for determination of residues of 1,2-dibromoethane in fumigated grapefruit

“…Bielorai and Alumot (1965) used extraction by steam distillation and then analyzed the benzene layer by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) by using thermal conductivity (TC) and flame ionization detectors (FID) to achieve sensitivities of 40 and 4 mg/kg, respectively. More recently, Hargreaves et al (1974Hargreaves et al ( ,1978 developed an X-ray fluorescence method of determining bromide in EDB steam distilled from various commodities into toluene whereby they achieved a sensitivity of 0.2 mg/kg. However, under long-term storage, as during refrigerated shipment, EDB residues fall below levels that are detectable by all existing methods.…”