Pesticides Quantification in Food Samples by Means of Scale-Reduced QuEChERS Approach Coupled to Fast GC-QqQ MS

Mariosimone Zoccali, Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali, Chromaleont srl, Messina, Italy
Antonino Schepis, Dipartimento Di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche Ed Ambientali, University Of Messina, Messina, Italy
Luigi Mondello, Dipartimento Di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche Ed Ambientali, University Of Messina, Messina, Italy

Enter the body of your abstract hereThe QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) methodology is an emerging sample preparation technique, proposed for the first time in 2003 by Anastassiades et al. [1]. Since then several modifications have been proposed to adapt the method to different matrices. The main object of the present work was to speed up the entire analytical approach, miniaturizing the preparation step and performing a faster GC determination. Two miniaturized QuEChERS approaches (according to the matrix type) for the extraction and clean-up processes of 35 target pesticides in vegetable products namely tomatoes, zucchini, red peppers and lettuce were proposed. Fast gas chromatography (GC) coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (QqQ MS) was used for qualitative and quantitative purposes. To confirm the feasibility of the miniaturized developed methods comparison with the official European Union one, namely EN15662:2008, was carried out. Fully validation of the developed methodswas performed considering the following figures of merit: matrix effect, recovery, linearity, precision, accuracy, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ). The developed fast GC-QqQ MS method, fulfill the terms of EU regulation and was applied for the analysis of 35 pesticides in 20 different vegetable samples.

[1] M. Anastassiades, S.J. Lehotay, D. Štajnbaher, F.J. Schenck, Fast and easy multiresidue method employing acetonitrile extraction/partitioning and “dispersive solid-phase extraction” for the determination of pesticide residues in produce, J. AOAC Int. 86 (2003) 412–431.