The reduction rate of pesticide residues on spinach(bifenthrin, metalaxyl, procymidone), chard(bifenthrin, imidacloprid) and mallow(bifenthrin, chlorpyrifos, imidacloprid) were tested on each step of washing and boiling(spinach: 1, 3, 5min., chard: 3, 6, 9min., mallow: 10, 20, 30min.). The reduction rates of bifenthrin and procymidone by washing were 58~64% and 82%, and these were not changed significantly after boiling. In case of imidacloprid, the rates showed 43% on chard and 12% on mallow by washing, and these were highly increased to 94% after boiling. And the reduction rate of metalaxyl and chloropyrifos were 69% and 11% by washing, and 96~98% and 77~79% by boiling. Specifically we monitored the pesticide residues on both boiled vegetable and its water because there are used to cook as soup in Korea. The total residual amounts of imidacloprid and chloropyrifos were effectively removed on both boiled mallow and its water (12% → 34~40%, 11% → 76~79%), however, the other tested pesticides were not changed on pesticide residues when calculated with total amounts on boiled vegetable and its water. These explained the other pesticides were just moved vegetable to water by boiling.

The consumption of “ready-to-eat” agricultural products is recently increasing and the safety of these agricultural products is forefront of public concerns. The 120 samples of paprikas, strawberries and tomatoes, which are the representative exported agricultural products, were purchased at the department stores and discount stores in Daejeon. And we determined the microbiological and parasitological contamination level of these agricultural products using culture media, multiplex PCR, commercial bacterial detection kit and microscopy, and also evaluated the decontamination method. Mean counts of total aerobic bacteria from these agricultural products ranged from 1.3×104 CFU/g to 1.8×105 CFU/g, and mean counts of coliforms ranged from 1.4×103 CFU/g to 9.6×103 CFU/g. There was no significant difference in the level of bacterial contamination between the agricultural products from department stores and the ones from discount stores. Strawberry showed the highest contamination level for the bacteria and we also found the unidentified parasite eggs. Enterobacter cloacae was the most frequently isolated bacteria strain, but no food poisoning pathogenic bacteria except Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the products by multiplex PCR. Compared to unwashed products, tab water-washed ones showed 80% decrease of the counts of total aerobic bacteria on the agricultural products, and the rates decreased more by incorporating detergent or ultrasonic wave treatment. We concluded that the biological contamination levels among paprikas, strawberries and tomatoes were the highest in strawberries, but there were not significant difference according to distribution systems.

A survey of total aflatoxin levels was conducted on 145 samples(carthamiflos, thujae semen, giycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma) collected in Yakyeang markets in Seoul. Aflatoxin levels were quantified by the immunoaffinity column clean-up method followed by performance liguid chromatography(HPLC)-fluorescence detector(FLD). Aflatoxins were found in 10(6.9%)samples including 5 Arecae semen, 4 Thujae semen, 1 Zizyphi semen with a range of 0.45~79.15 μg/kg. Generally These results show that the contamination level of aflatoxins in Herb Medicines consumed in Korea is high compared with the standard in Korea Herb Medicine Code(10 μg/kg as aflatoxin B1). It is considered that aflatoxin concentration was increased in herb medicines during a storage and drying in herb medicines examined