Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part a (2022)

Background and Objective: The production of safe foods for consumption is an important issue worldwide. Pesticide application is being used in recent agricultural practices to cultivate crops. Their use can have serious impacts on the health of humans. This research work aims to assess pesticide residues in carrot samples from Kaduna and Plateau States in Northern Nigeria and their risk to human health.

Materials and Methods: Ten samples of carrots were collected in two groups from Kaduna and Plateau States and analyzed for pesticide residues. Extraction was performed and analysis was performed using gas chromatography hypherated to a mass spectrophotometer. Risk assessment was carried out by determining the health risk index.

Results: Results of the analysis showed that nineteen pesticides were detected. Organochlorines were the highest with Trans-nonachlor appearing in nine of the samples with the highest mean concentration being 0.064±0.003 mg/kg in samples from Plateau State and the lowest being 0.022±0.004 mg/kg in samples from Kaduna State. Organophosphates were also detected with high concentrations in samples from Plateau State with a mean concentration of 0.034±0.003 mg/kg and the lowest being 0.000±0.0001 mg/kg. The risk index was <1 in all cases in the carrot samples. The result was generally lower than what has been recorded in other parts of the world and suggest that consumption of carrots investigated in the present study in Nigeria will be considered safe for the nineteen pesticides investigated.

Conclusion: There is a need for constant monitoring of these pesticides, especially carbamates and organophosphates since they are more widely used in farming practices in Nigeria.