Resíduos de agrotóxicos em leite cru refrigerado: validação da ampliação do escopo de método por LC-MS/MS e análise multivariada de fatores que influenciam sua ocorrência no estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The dairy cattle is one of the most important and traditional economic activities in our country, especially in Minas Gerais State, which is the largest milk producer in Brazil. Currently, one of the great shortcomings of the sector is the lack of information concerning the presence of pesticide residues in milk produced in Minas Gerais. Due to the complexity of the milk, the low concentrations of pesticides in milk, and the possibility of pesticides used in cattle produce residues in milk and cause harm to public health, there is great need to develop efficient and reliable analytical methods for the determination and quantification these wastes. This work validated the expansion of the range of a multiresidues method for determination and quantification of pesticides in refrigerated raw milk produced in the state of Minas Gerais, using the QuEChERS extraction method modified for detection by LC-MS / MS. The validated method was applied to search pesticide for residues in milk produced in 12 regions in Minas Gerais State. It was analyzed a total of 827 samples of refrigerated raw milk. Among all samples analyzed, 347 had 22 different pesticides detected. Moreover, of these, 218 samples had pesticide residues above the limits allowed by Brazilian law. The application of multivariate analysis of multiple correspondence in the results revealed a correlation between the possible causes of contamination: GNP, average milk production per animal, number of cows milked, the season which sample was collected and the frequency of contamination by region. It was identified that the most contamination occurred between the spring and summer in region which GNP and milk production are both elevated. Besides the toxicological aspect, this work showed the great importance of food safety indicating that urgent actions must be taken to ensure the health of the consumers in Minas Gerais.