Sampling
Samples of tomatoes were collected at harvest time by simple random
sampling at 18 producers in 17 villages in the two municipalities.
Tomatoes fromthe 18 producerswere pooled in six groups representing
well defined areas in the twomunicipalities. Fromeach group three 2 kg
sub-sampleswere selected and stored in paper bags for later treatments
and pesticide analyses at day 3, day 6, and day 10 after harvest (Fig. 1).
Each sub samplewas then either: left untreated (1), onewaswashed
by cleaning with a soft brush under running water for approximately
1 min per tomato (2) and one was peeled with a knife (3). A total of
54 samples were prepared for analysis (18 samples per sampling
time). All safety precautions, including use of special gloves to protect