Background: Cereal grains are an important for the nutrition of both humans and animals, and contribute to the nutrition cycle in different ways. Chemical contaminants are important to be monitored in food due to their direct effects on human health.
Objective: This work aimed to monitor some of the hazardous chemical contaminants i.e., organochlorines (OCs), pyrethroids, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in wheat and barley grains of European origin during 2019.
Method: Samples were collected consecutively during the season and the QuEChERS technique (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) followed by GC-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) analysis was used in the extraction and cleaning up for all analyzed compounds. The method was verified, and a recovery study was performed at two spiking levels: 0.01 and 0.05 µg/g. RSD(%), LOD, and LOQ were calculated. Recovery ranged from 78.70-104.00% for all compounds at both levels at RSD 2.16-11.76%. Fat, moisture, protein, and specific weight contents of both grains of all studied origins were also recorded.
Results: Results revealed that all detected pesticides were lower than the estimated maximum residue limits (MRLs). Few congeners of PCBs and PAHs were detected in the most of origins with tiny amounts but no estimated MRLs for it in cereal grains to be compared.
Conclusions: None of the analyzed OCs were detected except endosulfan-I which was detected in some wheat samples from Ukraine and Poland, and some barley samples from Latvia, but still lower than the MRL.
Highlights: None of the OCs, highly toxic PCBs or the carcinogenic PAH benzo[a]pyrene were detected in any analyzed samples.
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