Dissipation and Risk Assessment of a Combination Product of Chlorantraniliprole + Abamectin and Spirotetramat in Pomegranate Fruit and Juice

Supervised field trials were conducted to understand the dissipation kinetics of the combination product chlorantraniliprole + abamectin and spirotetramat and its metabolites in pomegranate samples. QuEChERS-based methods were successfully used to analyze these pesticides from pomegranate samples with a correlation coefficient R² > 0.99, accuracy 70–120%, and precision RSD ≤ 20% in all cases. The dissipation study showed that all the molecules followed first-order kinetics with half-lives ranging from 7.9 to 13.7 days, from 3.6 to 5.5 days, and from 1.4 to 1.6 days for chlorantraniliprole, abamectin, and spirotetramat, respectively. Dissipation kinetics and half-life were calculated in accordance with the residue definition of these pesticides. A pre-harvest (PHI) interval of 10 days is suggested. Risk assessment showed that the theoretical maximum daily intake (TMDI) was less than the acceptable daily intake (ADI) in all cases, suggesting that these pesticides can be used on pomegranate crops without any significant risk, provided good agricultural practices (GAP) are followed with a PHI of 10 days. Data from the present study can be used by national and international regulatory bodies for establishing maximum residue limits (MRLs) in pomegranate as well as can be extrapolated to establish PHI and MRLs for other berry fruits. However, there is a need to undertake such studies in other berry fruits in the future.