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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Food Animal Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341991
Research Project: Detection and Fate of Chemical and Biological Residues in Food and Environmental Systems

Location: Food Animal Metabolism Research

Title: Stability of sodium chlorate residues in frozen tomato and cantaloupe homogenates

Author
item Smith, David
item Herges, Grant

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/20/2017
Publication Date: 7/25/2017
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/5801810
Citation: Smith, D.J., Herges, G.R. 2017. Stability of sodium chlorate residues in frozen tomato and cantaloupe homogenates. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 65(30):6258-6263. doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.7b02520.

Interpretive Summary: Sodium chlorate is sometimes a by-product of chlorine dioxide sanitation of fruits and other food products and is a ubiquitous contaminant of bleach solutions. Chlorate residues have been measured in a variety of vegetable food products from around the globe. Under some storage conditions sodium chlorate residues are rapidly degraded by biotic processes. This study was conducted to determine the stability of sodium chlorate residues in homogenized tomato and cantaloupe stored at -20 °C for up to 17 weeks. When kept frozen, chlorate residues remained stable in both tomato and cantaloupe for the duration of the study period. These data provide scientific evidence for the stability of chlorate residues in frozen food products.

Technical Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the stability of sodium chlorate in frozen (-24 °C) tomato or cantaloupe homogenates for up to 17 weeks (119 days). Chlorate stability was assessed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) at two fortification levels (80 or 600 ng/g for tomato and 200 or 3,000 ng/g for cantaloupe, n=3 each) for each fruit after storage for 0, 1, 7, 14, 28, 56, or 119d. Within matrix type, chlorate recovery was determined by fortifying duplicate blank homogenate samples on the day of analysis with the same concentrations used for the stability samples. Chlorate limits of quantitation for cantaloupe and tomato matrices were 30 and 60 ng/g, respectively. Sodium chlorate residues were stable (P > 0.05) in frozen tomato and cantaloupe homogenates during storage for 119 days at -24°C.