Dietary patterns and pesticide exposure in rural Latvia: evidence from a human biomonitoring study

Dietary intake is the main route of pesticide exposure in the general population. While several European studies have linked food consumption to human biomonitoring data, evidence from smaller countries such as Latvia is scarce. This study is the first to systematically examine how dietary habits influence pesticide exposure in the Latvian rural population, addressing an important knowledge gap and providing evidence with direct relevance for public health and food safety policies. This study used data from the HBM4EU SPECIMEn study, including 101 adult-child pairs from rural Latvia. Morning spot urine samples were collected from all pairs. Urinary pesticide metabolites were measured using suspect screening with full scan liquid chromatography coupled to HRMS, resulting in annotated metabolites. Dietary information was collected through food diaries 24 h prior to urine collection, and associations between the consumption of specific fruits and vegetables and pesticide detection were assessed using descriptive frequency analysis and logistic mixed-effects regression models. Consumption of apples, bananas, eggplants/courgettes, grapes, pears, and processed potato products was consistently associated with higher detection frequencies and increased odds of pesticide detection. Acetamiprid was detected in 66.7% of grape consumer urine samples compared with 31.8% of non-consumers, and 73.6% of French fries/chips consumers had chlorpropham detected compared with 25.9% of non-consumers. Logistic regression confirmed these associations, showing strong links between apple consumption and acetamiprid (OR = 2.49, 95% CI 1.51-4.09, p < 0.001) and between banana consumption and boscalid (OR = 2.66, 95% CI 1.34-5.28, p = 0.005). No significant differences were observed between organic/homegrown and conventional food items. Higher pesticide detection frequencies and odds ratios were observed among participants reporting consumption of apples, bananas, grapes, pears, and processed potato products compared with non-consumers, with the strongest associations for acetamiprid in grapes, chlorpropham in French fries and chips, and multiple pesticides in apples. The detection of pesticides not registered in Latvia, such as acetamiprid, pyrimethanil, and imazalil, indicates that imported foods are an important source of exposure. These findings contribute to understanding dietary exposure pathways and may support future exposure monitoring and food safety communication strategies.