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Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables from Farmers’ Markets

Food safety concerns continue to be important to agriculture in many parts of the world. Many farmers use chemical pesticides to control insect pests, weeds and diseases to obtain high yields, quality and blemish free appearance to meet standards imposed by consumers. Residues from pesticides may still be present on produce and may have long-term adverse effects on human health [1]. It is therefore not surprising that over 90 percent of consumers are concerned about pesticide and fertilizer residues in food and food products [2,3]. In the USA, farmers’ markets represent an attractive outlet where consumers purchase fresh produce directly from the producer. The number of farmers’ market has grown significantly, with a 79% increase from 1994 to 2002 [4]. A major reason for this trend is the fact that consumers believe produce from farmers’ markets are fresher, pesticidefree and of higher quality [5,6] and there is little data available to support all of these claims. Pesticide detection methods are generally expensive, time consuming, and not suitable for field measurements. Simpler, yet innovative devices that are easy to use and capable of providing reliable information are needed.