## 3 Results
### Contamination Grade by Pesticide Residues in Cereals and Legumes
As an example, the chromatographic profile of a wheat sample contaminated by pyrimiphos-methyl at a concentration of 0.045 \(\pm\) 0.008 mg kg\({}^{-1}\) is displayed in Figure 3. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Year**} & **Contaminated** & **Pesticide** & **Contamination** \\  & **Matrix** & **Level (mg kg\({}^{-1}\))** & **MRL (mg kg\({}^{-1}\))** \\ \hline \multirow{8}{*}{2018} & Wheat & Chlorpyrifos & 0.025 & 0.04 \\  & Wheat & Fenvalerate & 0.018 & 0.20 \\  & Wheat & Cyfluthrin & 0.011 & 0.05 \\  & Wheat & Phenothrin & 0.013 & 0.05 \\  & Wheat & Deltamethrin & 0.012 & 1.00 \\  & Wheat & Deltamethrin & 0.018 & 1.00 \\  & Wheat & Cypermethrin & 0.018 & 2.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.013 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.030 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.049 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.093 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.113 & 5.00 \\ \hline \multirow{8}{*}{2019} & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.015 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.016 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.018 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.045 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.052 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.054 & 5.00 \\  & Wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.030 & 5.00 \\  & Durum wheat & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.080 & 5.00 \\  & bran & Oriat flakes & Pirimiphos-methyl & 0.020 & 5.00 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Contaminated samples by pesticide residues and corresponding MRLs. Our results have been compared with data reported in the official European documents [33], which provides an overview of the contamination grade of cereal samples by pesticide residues in Italy and Europe. According to the national summary reports on pesticide residue analysis performed in 2018, 1457 samples of cereals were analyzed in Italy, of which 90.2% are of Italian origin, 9.8% are imported products. From the analyses carried out on all the cereal samples, it appears that 77.1% of samples did not contain pesticide residues, 22.4% showed residues below or equal to the corresponding MRL, and 0.5% were higher than MRL. Among pesticides listed in the EFSA report whose values exceed MRLs, deltamethrin has been found also in wheat samples monitored in this work, even if at a concentration level lower than its corresponding MRL. In the European context, 5720 cereal samples were collected in all member states and a percentage of 54.4% showed quantifiable residues. Among them, 48.9% of samples resulted compliantly, and only 5.5% were non-compliant [32]. In the contaminated wheat samples, the following pesticides were identified: chloromequat (39.47%), pirimiphos-methyl (15.08%), mepiquat (8.23), chlorpyrifos-methyl (6.68%), deltamethrin (5.95%) glyphosate (4.75%), cypermethrin (3.81%), tebuconazole (2.58%), dithiocarbamates (1.66%) and chlorpyrifos (1.61%), without exceeding the MRLs. The only residues found with content higher than the corresponding MRLs were chlorpyrifos (0.27%) carbendazim (0.17%) chlorophram (0.14%) and pirimiphos-methyl (0.13%). For the extra-European countries, no official data are available on the annual monitoring activity of pesticide residues. Nevertheless, on this topic, an unofficial monitoring study was conducted in Kazakhstan on the determination of pesticide residues in 80 cereal samples (wheat, barley, oats, and rice) [34]. Of the 45 wheat samples, 70% were found to be compliant, associated with non-quantifiable residue levels. A percentage of 16% showed residue contents higher than the quantification limits but lower than the MRL; 13% of samples contained pesticides at concentrations above MRLs. On a total of 15 samples of oats analyzed, 87% were found to be residue-free and 13% with residues below the MRL. A percentage of 86% on 15 barley samples showed no trace of residues and 7% had quantifiable pesticide levels, but lower than MRLs. A further percentage of 7% was associated with samples containing residues above MRLs.