Fungicides in red wines produced in South America

ABSTRACT

Although recent research has shown that pesticides can remain in wine, there is only legislation regarding the level of pesticides in grapes; no such regulations exist for wine. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the presence of fungicides in 190 wines produced in southern South America, as well as to present a new method for the quantification of dithiocarbamates. The fungicides were analysed by LC-MS/MS and GC/MS using validated methods according to the SANTE recommendations. The results for dithiocarbamates are expressed in mancozeb equivalents and are reported herein for the first time. Of the 190 wines analysed, 40% had residues from at least one fungicide detected above the LOQ, and 16.3% of the wines contained levels of fungicides above the MRL for grapes. The fungicides most commonly found were dithiocarbamates, azoxystrobin, carbendazim, difenoconazole, dimethomorph and cyprodinil. The new method for quantification of dithiocarbamates presented high accuracy (89.8–108.1%) and precision (HorRat values between: 0.5 – 1.1).