Rapid detection of Thiabendazole pesticide in frozen fruits and vegetables commercialized on Romanian stores

The extensive use of Thiabendazole (TBZ) pesticide as a preservative to ensure freshness has resulted in its frequent detection in water resources and in soil from fruit and vegetable production areas. The EU REGULATION regarding the maximum residue levels for thiabendazole in or on certain products, define the pesticide residues and maximum residue levels in mg/kg in fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. So, pesticides, just like TBZ directly pollute the environment and contaminate foods ultimately being absorbed by the human body. Their residues contain highly toxic substances that have been found to cause serious problems to human health even at very low concentrations. In this project we propose to put into the practice and validate in laboratory a fast, sensitive, prompt and cheap analytical methodology for TBZ assessment in frozen fruits and vegetables, based on the Raman scattering technique, in conjunction with the plasmonic properties of noble metal nanoparticles exploited with the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Therefore, our approach here is to test and validate in laboratory the TBZ detection method for the various frozen fruits and vegetables, comercialized in Roamanian stores, and prospecting the TBZ identification and quantification in frozen products.  Plasmonic -based micro-SERS approach will be extended to in situ analysis with highly sensitive portable instruments, opening an avenue for reliable in situ food monitoring programs in Romania.