A sensitive and selective method for the determination of selected pesticides in fruit by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with negative chemical ionization.

Multiresidue methods (MRMs) for pesticides residues determination in fruit and vegetables, based on GC-MS, are mainly performed in electron impact ionization mode. However an important group of them provide much better response working in negative chemical ionization mode due to the elimination of a high percentage of background signal. Considering that a selective and sensitive method has been developed for the determination of multiclass pesticide residues in different commodities by GC-MS with a triple stage quadrupole analyzer (GC-TSQ-MS); the pesticide signal has been optimized in MS-MS whilst working in negative chemical ionization mode using methane as the reagent gas. The proposed method was fully validated for 53 compounds in tomato, apple and orange matrices. The obtained limits of determination were lower than 0.1 µg/kg for more than 50% of the pesticides studied, and lower than 1 µg/kg for all pesticides studied, except for cypermethrin, boscalid, bifenthrin and deltamethrin. Linearity was studied in the 0.5-50 µg/kg range and a linear response was obtained for all pesticides in all matrices. Recoveries were evaluated at two different levels (1 and 50 µg/kg) and recoveries were ranged between 70 and 120% in tomato, apple and orange, except in the cases of chlorfenapyr, ofurace, chlozolinate, chlorothalonil, tolylfluanid and dichlofluanid with recovery values close to 60% at 1 µg/kg fortification levels. Repetitivity was evaluated and the relative standard deviation (RSD%) was lower than 10% in all cases. The developed method was employed in the analysis of real samples intended for baby food and the obtained results showed that 50% of the samples were positive for different pesticide residues. The concentration range detected was between 5 and 100 µg/kg. The positive detection of OCs was particularly noticeable; these included chlorothalonil, fenhexamide, clorpyrifos and lambda cyhalothrin, which are very persistent and toxic with low acute reference dose. Endosulfan sulfate, which is not approved, was detected at a low concentration.

Determination of chlorothalonil in difficult-to-analyse vegetable matrices using various multiresidue methods.

The molecular characteristics of chlorothalonil can cause particular determination difficulties in some vegetable commodities such as leek or garlic. These difficulties are mainly related to the low recoveries obtained using common multi-residue methods (MRMs)--a consequence of the very high interaction level with natural components in the matrix. These shortcomings were pointed out in the last European Proficiency Test for Pesticide Residues on Fruits and Vegetables, where false negatives for chlorothalonil in leek were observed at around 50%. In this study we have evaluated the ethyl acetate, the Dutch mini-Luke and the QuEChERS MRMs to compare their capabilities for chlorothalonil determination using GC-MS/MS in both the electron impact ionization (EI) and negative chemical ionization (NCI) modes. Best recoveries (in the range of 100-120%, with an RSD below 20%) were obtained using the Dutch mini-Luke method. Lower values (52-70%) were obtained for ethyl acetate whereas no recovery was obtained when the QuEChERS method was applied. Furthermore, tomato matrix was also included in the experiments in order to facilitate the comparability of results. Two ionization modes, electron impact ionization (EI) and negative chemical ionization (NCI) in GC-MS/MS, were applied to evaluate their respective advantages and disadvantages for quantification and identification. As expected, NCI showed limits of detection (LODs) 5 to 10 times lower than EI. However, in both cases, the LODs were still below 10 µg kg(-1). The proposed optimal method was applied for chlorothalonil determination in leek and garlic with good results--in accordance with the European Union (EU) Analytical Quality Control (AQC) Guidelines for pesticides analysis.

Determination of selected pesticides by GC with simultaneous detection by MS (NCI) and µ-ECD in fruit and vegetable matrices.

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method in negative chemical ionization mode has been developed incorporating simultaneous detection using a micro-electron capture detector (µ-ECD) for the determination of pesticides in fruits and vegetables. This instrument configuration uses a three-way splitter device which divides the effluent from the analytical column between the two detectors with the split ratio 1:0.1 (MSD/µ-ECD) in each run. The µ-ECD was used for confirmation purposes. Validation of the method was performed on three matrices: tomato, apple, and orange. The ethyl acetate method was assayed; recovery studies were performed at 10 and 100 µg/kg. Recoveries between 70% and 120% were achieved and relative standard deviations lower than 20% (n = 5) were obtained for all pesticides and matrices studied. Limits of quantification lower than 10 µg/kg were obtained for 100% of pesticides in all of the matrices. Limits of quantification lower than 2.5 µg/kg were achieved for 77.8% of pesticides in the tomato and apple matrices, and for 72.2% of pesticides in the orange matrix. The method showed linear response in the concentration range tested (2.5-500 µg/kg) with correlation coefficients >0.99. Good repeatability and reproducibility results were obtained in all cases, with relative standard deviations lower than 16.7% and 20%, respectively. Finally, 20 incurred samples were analyzed using the proposed method. The simultaneous use of the two detectors was satisfactory for the analysis of these real samples. The total number of pesticides identified was 25. The number of samples which contained at least one pesticide was 15-this represented 75% of the total number of samples studied.