Background: When previous studies were examined, it was reported that a wide variety of pesticide residues were detected in lettuce (Bakırcı et al. in Food Chem 160:379–392, 2014; Balkan and Yılmaz in Food Chem 384:132516, 2022; Qin et al. in Food Res Int 72:161–167, 2015; Selim et al. in Res J Environ Sci 5:248–258, 2011). In addition, pesticide-contaminated lettuce poses a risk to consumers as it is a fresh food that is eaten raw. Therefore, pesticide removal processes must be applied before consumption. Some pesticide removal process, such as storage and heat treatment cannot be applied to lettuce because of unshelled, no long shelf life and consuming as fresh. Different practical methods are needed for the removal of pesticides process. The recommendations of suitable methods for cleaning salad materials in ready-to-eat sector, hotels, restaurants and homes are very important. It is important to reduce pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits that are consumed raw by washing them with non-toxic solutions. These approaches aim to protect public health. The study conducted in 2021 determined the effect of various washing treatments. For this purpose, before the washing trials, QuEChERS method was validated for determination of 7 pesticides in lettuce, by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Lettuce plants were grown in the greenhouse for the study. Lettuces were brought to the laboratory 24 h after pesticides were applied in the greenhouse. The samples were kept in 2 L washing solution for pesticide analysis. Results: The processing factor values of all washing applications were found below 1. This result shows that the residue level was reduced by washing solutions. Among the washing solution treatments, the rice vinegar washing solution was found to be most effective in reducing the pesticide residues which was due to the high degree in the pesticide degradation. Washing with filtered rice water also exhibited equivalent reduction capability similar to rice vinegar. Conclusions: The effectiveness of washing solutions was different for boscalid, deltamethrin, fluopcolide, fluopyram, pyrimethanil, pyraclostrobin and sulfoxaflor. However, when the average removal of these pesticides was evaluated, the most effective solutions were rice vinegar, filtered rice water, carbonated water, NaCl + grape vinegar, hot tap water (40 °C), grape vinegar (6% acetic acid), grape vinegar + water, cold tap water (20 °C), lemon juice, baking soda water, grape vinegar (8% acetic acid), filtered mint water and grape vinegar (4% acetic acid), respectively. It was concluded that some of the solutions used in this study can significantly reduce exposure to pesticides for consumers.

This study was carried out to determine the pesticide residue levels and health risk assessments in tomato, pepper, and cucumber grown in Tokat province of Turkey. A residue analytical method was verified to determine 260 pesticides by using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Pesticide solutions at 10 and 50 µg kg­¹ doses were fortified with the pesticide-free cucumber matrix for verification of the method. The linearities (R2), the limit of detection (LODs), the limit of quantification (LOQs), and mean recovery values of the pesticides ranged between 0.990-0.999, 0.71-2.96 μg kg­¹, 2.36-9.86 μg kg­¹ and 77.25-117.61%, respectively. Pesticide residue levels of 28 vegetable samples collected from Tokat province were determined using the verified method. Seventeen different pesticides were detected in 16 samples, and pesticide concentrations in 3 samples were higher than the allowable limits of the European Union Maximum Residue Limits (EU-MRL). The pyridaben level in 1 pepper sample, metrafenone in 2 cucumber samples were higher than the threshold values stated by the EU-MRL. The results of health risk assessments indicated that these pesticides have chronic toxicity potential for consumers.