Evaluation Safety of Fresh Apricot

The problem of food safety is extremely relevant, due to the general characteristics of the modern world, such as environmental pollution and urbanization. Apricots are an important fresh fruit and nutritionally valuable for humans, as they are rich in polyphenols, vitamins and carotenoids. The purpose of this paper is to present food safety, factors affecting FFs safety, legislation and indicators that should be study for determination of FFs safety according to the regulations and researches carried out up to this moment. The main objective of this study is safety evaluation of some apricot varieties, cultivated in Bulgaria. The methods applied are: determination of lead and cadmium in FFs - inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); determination of pesticide residues - gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) with subsequent extraction/separation with acetonitrile and purification by dispersing SPE-QuEChERS-method; horizontal method for detection, enumeration and serological typing of Salmonella; horizontal method for detection and enumeration of Listeria monocytogenes, Enterobacteriacea and Clostridium spp. It was found that lead content is 0,005-0,014 mg/kg, cadmium content is less than 0,005 mg/kg, content of organophosphorus, carbamate and dithiocarbamate pesticides is less than 0,010 mg/kg, content of 288 studied pesticides is below the maximum permissible residue levels. In composition of apricots, were not found Salmonella species and Listeria monocytogenes, Enterobacteriaceae in the varieties Hungarian, Delmast and Roxana is less than 10 CfU/ g, and in variety Silistrenska Compotna is 30 CfU/ g, Clostridium spp. is less than 10 CfU/ g for all varieties. As a result, was found that the varieties of fresh apricots are safe, do not pose a risk to consumers health, fruits could be used for further investigations of FFs quality and their intended use for consumption and processing.