Pesticides in food from the school feeding program menu and risks to children's health

Abstract

Adequate nutrition in the first years of life is a fundamental requirement for health and affects all life cycles of the individual. Several scientific studies associate exposure to pesticides with adverse effects to health. Foods from the infancy school feeding program menu in the city of Rio de Janeiro were evaluated for the presence of 299 pesticides residues. The selection of food was based on the frequency of consumption according to the weekly menus of the municipal school system. The analysis of pesticide residues by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to tandem Mass Spectrometry in 140 samples (milk, infant cereal, banana, apple, papaya, orange, beans and rice) identified 423 detections of 61 different pesticides. More than 70% of the samples had multiple pesticide residues, indicating a potential risk to children's health, which needs to be a priority public health concern. School meals must guarantee, in addition to nutrition, food safety to children. It is necessary to strengthen agroecology with incentives and public policies, expand the acquisition of organic foods by the School Feeding National Program and verify the toxicological impacts on children's health, aiming protection and promotion of collective health.