Trifluralin has been used in agriculture since 1963 and is a selective pre-emergence dinitroanaline herbicide which is used to control grasses and broad leaf weeds in various tree fruit, nut, vegetable and grain crops. Trifluralin can persist in the environment for a long period of time and is highly toxic to aquatic animals. Trifluralin can bioaccumulate, therefore sediment-feeding organisms are most at risk. Studies carried out on the genotoxic potential of trifluralin conclude that it is non-genotoxic and evidence suggests that trifluralin does not pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.
The World Health Organisation has classified trifluralin as unlikely to present acute hazard in normal use. Japan, however, has previously applied a new regulation of inspecting 30% of the shrimp imported from Vietnam for trifluralin residues. Japan has also warned Vietnam that if trifluralin was detected in a batch of shrimp, Japan would immediately apply the 100% inspection regulation.
In order to satisfy this screening requirement for exporting shrimps, Randox Food Diagnostics has developed a Trifluralin ELISA. Excellent limits of detections of 0.17ppb can be achieved using a simple sample preparation. 40 samples can be prepared in less than three hours and assay time to results is 90min. Many of the required reagents including spiking material are provided in the kit, reducing the cost to the end user.
