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Background Tea is a popular traditional non-alcoholic beverage worldwide. Flonicamid is a selective systemic pyridine carboxamide insecticide that is widely used for controlling tea leafhopper in tea. Objective The leaching rates, dissipation dynamics, and residue levels of flonicamid and its metabolites in tea leaves during processing and transferring were investigated to validate the safe risk in tea and transfer behavior using high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with a convenient pretreatment method. Method The extracting method and immersion rate experiments were optimized by single factor analysis and orthogonal tests. The acetonitrile extracting solvent with 0.5% formic acid was used and optimal leaching conditions were obtained with a regime of 15 min immersion time, 100°C temperature, three immersions and a tea-to-water ratio of 1:50. Results Average recoveries in processed green tea and infusions were 80.85–98.75% with relative standard deviations <5.87%. LODs and LOQs of flonicamid, 4-trifluoromethylnicotinic acid (TFNA), N-(4-trifluoromethylnicotinoyl) glycine (TFNG), and 4-trifluoromethylnicotinamide (TFNA-AM) were 0.0013–0.350 and 0.004–1 μg/g, respectively. The processing factor of flonicamid was 0.36–5.52 during green tea manufacture. The leaching rates were 22.9-97.4% from processed tea to infusion. Conclusions The risk of long-term and short-term dietary intake of flonicamid was safe in tea infusions with the risk quotient (RQ) values <1 for the Chinese consumer. This work may provide guidance for safe and reasonable consumption of flonicamid in tea in China. Highlights The suitable leaching factors of flonicamid and its metabolites in tea infusions were optimized by orthogonal experimentation for the first time.

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