Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation

(Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation)
concentrations in the peel of the vegetables.. Therefore peeling or trimming removes about 50% of
the pesticide residues from the vegetables.
Cooking: The process of cooking or boiling vegetables by heating at different temperatures
reduces the pesticidal contamination of vegetables to the maximum level especially the
organophosphorus pesticides. During this process the pesticides are translocated into the cooking
water or degraded to other compounds reducing the level of original pesticide toxicity.
Dip treatment: The dipping of vegetables in mild chemical solutions like NaCl, dilute HCl,
CH 3 COOH, NaOH and KMnO 4 have been reported to reduce a high percentage of pyrethroid
residues in vegetables.
The above decontamination methods, if applied, bring down the pesticide residue levels
within the recommended MRL values in vegetables which are then considered to be safe for
consumption.
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