Ozone Treatment as a Green Technology for Removing Chlorpyrifos Residues from Vegetables and Its Impact on the Quality of Vegetables.

Because residues of chlorpyrifos being the most common in vegetables that are generally consumed uncooked and the demand for healthy vegetables has increased, an effective approach to remove these residues from vegetables is necessary. This study aimed to determine how effectively chlorpyrifos residues could be removed from a variety of vegetables by utilizing low concentrations of ozonated water as a green technology over different contact times. Solid-phase extraction was employed, and then residues were analyzed using GC‒MS. The study illustrated that the initial concentration of chlorpyrifos residues in arugula > parsley > leek > tomato > carrot > cucumber > cabbage > bell pepper. The % chlorpyrifos removal ranged 30–83, 91–97, 80–92, 92–95, 87–97, 95–97, 64–100, and 90–97% for bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, carrot, arugula, parsley, cabbage, and leek, respectively. A first-order kinetic model was assumed to explore the removal of chlorpyrifos and degradation rate constants increased as follows: parsley > carrot ≈ leek > arugula > tomato > cucumber > cabbage > bell pepper, with the absence of the chlorpyrifos-oxon which is more toxic than the parent chlorpyrifos after ozone treatments. Importantly, the use of ozonated water for chlorpyrifos removal had no appreciable adverse effects on the total phenolic compound, vitamin C levels, or free radical scavenging activity in most of the tested vegetables. These findings imply that ozone technology is a safe and effective method for eliminating chlorpyrifos from the surface of vegetables, potentially lowering the risk to consumer health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]