Simultaneous determination of pesticides, biopesticides and mycotoxins in organic products applying a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe extraction procedure and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

J Chromatogr A. 2011 Mar 18;1218(11):1477-85. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2011.01.034. Epub 2011 Jan 19.

Abstract

A method for the simultaneous determination of pesticides, biopesticides and mycotoxins from organic products was developed. Extraction of more than 90 compounds was evaluated and performed by using a modified QuEChERS-based (acronym of Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) sample preparation procedure. The method was based on a single extraction with acidified acetonitrile, followed by partitioning with salts, avoiding any clean-up step prior the determination by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Validation studies were carried out in wheat, cucumber and red wine as representative matrixes. Recoveries of the spiked samples were in the range between 70 and 120% (with intra-day precision, expressed as relative standard deviation, lower than 20%) for most of the analysed compounds, except picloram and quinmerac. Inter-day precision, expressed as relative standard deviation, was lower than 24%. Limits of quantification were lower than 10μg kg⁻¹ and the developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of organic food products, detecting analytes belonging to the three types of compounds.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
  • Mycotoxins / analysis*
  • Mycotoxins / isolation & purification
  • Pesticides / analysis*
  • Pesticides / isolation & purification
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods*

Substances

  • Mycotoxins
  • Pesticides