Application of SFC-MS/MS for the Quantification of Highly Polar Pesticides in a Range of Food Samples

The analysis of highly polar pesticides by LC-MS/MS is typically achieved by several specific methods with limited chemical space. The EU Reference Laboratories for Residues of Pesticides Single Residue Methods (EURL-SRM) have published QuPPe (Quick Polar Pesticides) methods for the simultaneous analysis of a number of highly polar pesticides which cannot be easily analysed using routine QuEChERS based extraction methods and multi-residue methods (M. Anastassiades et al; QuPPe of EURL-SRM (Version 9.1; 2016). To meet the needs of analysing highly polar pesticides by LC-MS/MS several chromatographic conditions have been used including hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), zwitterionic-type mixed-mode, normal-phase columns operated in HILIC-mode (bare silica and silica-based chemically bonded columns (cyano and amino)), reversed-phase C18 and carbon based phases. In this work SFC-MS/MS was applied to the analysis of a panel of highly polar pesticides extracted from several food matrices by QuPPe.