Suspect screening of pesticide co-formulants in fruits, vegetables and leaves by liquid and gas chromatography coupled to high resolution mass accuracy spectrometry: Potential impact on human health

Beatriz Martín-García; Roberto Romero-González; Antonia Garrido Frenich

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.137555

Suspect screening of pesticide co-formulants in fruits, vegetables and leaves by liquid and gas chromatography coupled to high resolution mass accuracy spectrometry: Potential impact on human health

Food Chem. 2024 Feb 15:434:137555. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.137555. Epub 2023 Sep 20.

Authors

Beatriz Martín-García¹, Roberto Romero-González², Antonia Garrido Frenich²

Affiliations

¹ Research Group "Analytical Chemistry of Contaminants", Department of Chemistry and Physics, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agri-Food Biotechnology (CIAMBITAL), University of Almería, Agri-Food Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3, 04120, Almería, Spain. Electronic address: bea91mg@ual.es.
² Research Group "Analytical Chemistry of Contaminants", Department of Chemistry and Physics, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agri-Food Biotechnology (CIAMBITAL), University of Almería, Agri-Food Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3, 04120, Almería, Spain.

PMID: 37757702
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.137555

Abstract

Vegetables can contain co-formulants derived from the use of plant protection products (PPPs) in crops. Thus, in the current study co-formulants were determined in different fruits and vegetables and their leaves by gas and liquid chromatography coupled to Q-Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-Q-Orbitrap and LC-Q-Orbitrap-MS). A total of 37 co-formulants were tentatively identified, and among them, 12 compounds were quantified by LC-Q-Orbitrap-MS and 9 by GC-Q-Orbitrap-MS. The mean co-formulant levels in fruit and vegetable samples was 92% lower than in leaf samples. Selected samples showed a high concentration of 1-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone among the co-formulants detected. This compound ranged from 22 µg/kg (strawberry) to 722 µg/kg (red grape), whereas in the case of leaves, its concentration was up to 6513 µg/kg in cucumber leaf. In addition, it has an LD₅₀ equal to 1.440 g/kg. Therefore, this type of PPP co-formulants should be controlled in fruits and vegetables to avoid adverse health effects.

Keywords: Co-formulants; Food commodities; GC-Q-Orbitrap-MS; LC-Q-Orbitrap-MS; Suspect analysis.