Effects of Postharvest Decontamination Methods on Citrus Reticulata Simulated Pesticide Residue Amounts
Environmental Studies
Truman Spillers
- Grade:
- 10
- Teacher:
- Elyse Wexler
An experiment testing the effects of cleaning methods on simulated pesticides on citrus fruit. 5 cleaning methods were tested and resulted in different amounts of simulated pesticide removal.
I like the experimental design and it’s an important question. Your analysis is also very nice.
Very interesting idea to use a black Sharpie marker to represent a pesticide to mark Mandarin oranges to use in your testing of different methods. I’ve not used ImageJ to measure color intensity, but your using this method seemed to work in your experiments. After looking at your data, I paid particular attention to scrubbing the oranges with just water seemed to have similar results as you using vinegar and baking soda to scrub the oranges. My wife always makes me scrub store bought produce with just plain water. Thank you for sharing your results with me.
This is a very interesting project and well executed. I appreciated the number of different treatments applied to remove the Sharpie from the citrus and how carefully you measured the amount of Sharpie remaining on the rind after treatment. Finding practical ways to remove pesticides from produce at home can have a big impact on human health, thanks for your contribution and well done.