Multi-Residue Analysis of 210 Pesticides in Food Samples by Triple Quadrupole UHPLC-MS/MS

Pesticides and their metabolites are of great concern to society as they are harmful to human health, pollute natural resources and disturb the equilibrium of the ecosystem. Consequently, stricter food safety regulations are being enforced around the world, placing pesticide analysis laboratories under increasing pressure to expand the list of targeted pesticides, detect analytes at lower levels and with greater precision, reduce analysis turnaround times, and all the while maintaining or reducing costs. In this study a method was successfully developed for the quantitation of 210 commonly analysed pesticides in food samples using the Nexera UHPLC and LCMS-8040. Initial validation was performed to demonstrate instrument capabilities. Limits of detection (LOD) for 90 % of compounds were less than 0.001 mg kg^-1 (1 ppb) and all compounds were less than 0.01 mg kg^-1 (10 ppb) for both the quantifying and qualifying transitions using only a 2 µL injection. Repeatability at the 0.01 mg kg^-1 reporting level was typically less than 5 %RSD for compounds and correlation coefficients were typically greater than 0.997 in a variety of studied food extracts. Consequently, the LCMS-8040 is ideally suited for routine monitoring of pesticides below the 0.01 mg kg^-1 default level set by EU and Japanese legislation.