Different Multi-Residue LC-MS/MS Methods Used For Pesticides Residues Analysis of Agricultural Products in PPIS-Israel

Laila Sheeney-Haj-Ichia, Plant Protection and Inspection Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bet Degan , Israel

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture to protect crops and to improve efficiency.

The identification and quantification of pesticides in fruit and vegetables is of great importance of health organizations throughout the world.

Pesticide residue testing of food has traditionally been performed using gas chromatography (GC), although in the last decade there is increasing use of liquid chromatography (LC) with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS).

One of the PPIS pesticide residue laboratory task is determining the dissipation curves of new developed pesticides setting the allowable residue level (MRL) & pre-harvest waiting interval.

Unlike older non-polar pesticide, recently developed crop protection agents are often more polar, more hydrophilic, less volatile, and are applied to fields in lower concentrations. This complicated nature of pesticides gives rise to the development of special methods which are intended for analysis of an individual or group of pesticides.

QuEChERS method (extraction of residues with acetonitrile and cleanup by dispersive solid-phase extraction) is a widely-adopted for the use of the LC/MS/MS technique to simultaneously identify and quantify large numbers of pesticides in crops.

This presentation will focus on the different LCMSMS methods used for pesticide residues analysis in the PPIS lab, such the routinely monitoring method, analysis of difficult pesticides like the very polar compounds, and a unique methods for non-QuEChERS amenable pesticides, and also includes the validation of new method for the residue analysis of Spirotetramat, Fluensulfone, Flonicamid and their metabolites in order to determine the allowable MRL.