A Critical Review of Pesticide Residues in Indian Biscuits

Main categories of biscuits in India broadly are Glucose, Marie, Creamy, Salty, Milk, Cookies and Multigrain. Wheat flour (maida) is the primary ingredient of these biscuits. Use of pesticide in large quantities in wheat grain poses threat of its contamination in f lour as well as in biscuits. Very little literature is available about pesticide residue in flour as well as biscuits manufactured in India and present review may be the first approach. The raw materials are the primary contributor of a wide series of contaminants in biscuits. The aim of this paper is to analyse pesticide residue in wheat and its degradation during storage, milling and baking processes so that presence of pesticide residue in biscuit could be ascertained. In a PAN India survey by FSSAI on pesticides residue on wheat three pesticide residues namely chlorpyrifos, malathion and carbendazim were found to be most frequently present beyond MRL in total 1 % of samples and 90.5 % samples were free of any pesticide and two pesticides namely bifenthrin, and dimethoate were detected below Maximum Residue Limit (MRL). By considering degradation of these pesticides in storage, grain milling and biscuit baking process it could be concluded that risk of presence of these pesticides in biscuits made of maida in India is insignificant and safe for consumption. However, for multigrain biscuit and biscuits made of whole wheat flour, wheat bran and oats this can’t be concluded safely due to higher pesticide content.