Application to routine analysis of a method to determine multiclass pesticide residues in fresh vegetables by gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

The use of gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS) applied to determine multiple pesticide residues in fresh vegetables has been thoroughly studied. A single injection method to detect, confirm and quantify 54 multiclass pesticides has been developed and applied in a routine analysis laboratory. The proposed method consists of a rapid extraction of 15 g of vegetable sample with dichloromethane. An additional clean-up step is not necessary even when injecting 10 microL of extract. Instead the gas chromatograph was fitted with a carbofrit inserted into the glass liner and a guard column. In addition, the detection mode chosen (MS/MS) provides additional selectivity. The method has been validated and applied to 1300 samples in a routine laboratory following specified quality criteria. The recovery efficiencies obtained for all the pesticides ranged between 70.2 and 110.8% at two different fortification levels. The relative standard deviation for quantification (RSD) was lower than 16.7% for all the compounds. Important experimental parameters, such as the conditioning of carbofrit, overload of the analytical column, and cleanliness of the ion trap, were evaluated for their influence on the performance of the method.

Pesticide Residue Analysis in Waters by Solid‐Phase Microextraction Coupled to Gas Chromatography‐Tandem Mass Spectrometry

“…[20] An influence study of various gas flow programs did not reveal a positive effect on the resolution of the target peaks. For that, several temperature programs were tested to separate the analytes avoiding co-elutions of more than 4 -5 target pesticides.…”

Comparison of different extraction methods for the simultaneous determination of pesticide residues in kiwi fruit using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…Numerous analytical methods have been reported for the determination of pesticide residues in various fruits and vegetables (Tsipi et al, 1999;Safi et al, 2002;Martinez Vidal et al, 2002a;Kondo et al, 2003;Moraes et al, 2003;Zrostlikova et al, 2003;Chu et al, 2005). Most of these methods have employed gas chromatography (GC), either with electron-capture detection, nitrogen-phosphorus detection or flame photometric detection (Harry and Pylypiw, 1993;Doong and Lee, 1999;Tsipi et al, 1999;Safi et al, 2002).…”

Pesticides in seaweed: optimization of pressurized liquid extraction and in-cell clean-up and analysis by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…The development of optimized multiresidue methods for monitoring pesticide residues is highly demanded, and various analytical methods have been reported for the determination of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables [7][8][9][10]. The determination of pesticides in foods is a difficult task owing to the complexity of the matrices, their different physicochemical properties and the low concentrations in which these compounds are usually present.…”