Abstract
Over the past years to ensure food safety and particular for food that intend to be consumed by infants and young children, the European Union has adopted specific legislation concerning the control of pesticide residue levels in that kind of food. In this paper, a liquid chromatography tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) multiresidue method for the simultaneous analysis of 23 pesticides and metabolites chosen according to the Commission Directives 2006/141/EC, 2006/125/EC, and 96 multiclass pesticides and metabolites chosen according to their physicochemical properties is presented and validated. The extraction procedure is based on three modifications of the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method according to the analyte. The analytical performance was demonstrated by the analysis of extracts from cereal-based infant foods, spiked at two concentration levels for each pesticide or metabolite. Good sensitivity and selectivity of the method were obtained with limits of quantification at 10 or 3 μg/kg, depending on the analyte. All pesticides and metabolites, except six cases, gave recoveries in the range of 60.4–125.4%, with relative standard deviations less than 29.7%, for both validation levels.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anastassiades M (2009) QuEChERS—a mini-multiresidue method for the analysis of pesticide residues in low-fat products. Available at http://www.quechers.com. Accessed 22 Mar 2009
Anastassiades M, Lehotay SJ, Stajnbaher D, Schenck FJ (2003) J Assoc Off Anal Chem Int 86:412–431
Anastassiades M, Tasdelen B, Scherbaum E, Stajnbaher D (2007) Recent developments in QuEChERS methodology for pesticide multiresidue analysis. In: Ohkawa H, Miyagawa H, Lee P (eds) Pesticide chemistry: crop protection, public health, environmental safety. WILEY-VCH, Weinheim, pp 439–458. ISBN 978-3-527-31663-2
Barcelo D, Fernandez-Alba A (2005) Comprehensive analytical chemistry: chromatographic–mass spectrometric food analysis for trace determination of pesticide residues, volume XLIII. Wilson & Wilson’s, Amsterdam
Cajka T, Hajslova J (2004) J Chromatogr A 1058:251–261
CRL for Single Residue Methods (2007) Analysis of acidic pesticides in wheat flour samples by LC–MS(/MS) using the QuEChERS method (including optional alkaline hydrolysis to release covalently bound compounds). Available at: http://www.crl-pesticides.eu/library/docs/cf/acidicpesticides_wheat_quechers.pdf. Accessed 2 Jun 2009
EURACHEM/CITAC Guide (2000) Quantifying uncertainty in analytical measurement, 2nd edn. EURACHEM, Lisbon, pp 106–107
European Commission (2006a) Council Directive 2006/125/EC of 5 December 2006 on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children. Off J Eur Union L 339:16–35, 6 Dec 2006
European Commission (2006b) Council Directive 2006/141/EC of 22 December 2006 on infant formulae and follow-on formulae and amending Directive 1999/21/EC. Off J Eur Union L 401:1–33, 30 Dec 2006
European Commission (2009) Document No. SANCO/10684/2009, method validation and quality control procedures for pesticide residues analysis in food and feed. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/protection/resources/qualcontrol_en.pdf. Accessed 11 Jul 2010
Federal Institutor of Risk Assessment (2009) List of pesticides for which methodological data is available at present. Available at: www.bfr.bund.de/cm/289/list_of_pesticides_for_which_methodological_data_ist_available_at_present.pdf. Accessed 26 Jan 2009
Hercegova A, Domotorova M, Matisova E (2007) J Chromatogr A 1153:54–73
Hernandez F, Pozo OJ, Sancho JV, Bijlsma L, Barreda M, Pitarch E (2006) J Chromatogr A 1109:242–252
Patel K, Fussell RJ, Goodall DM, Keely BJ (2004) Food Addit Contam: Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess 21:658
Stepan R, Ticha NJ, Hajslova J, Kovalczuk T, Kocourek V (2005) Food Addit Contam: Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess 22:1231–1242
Wang J, Cheung W, Grant D (2005) J Agric Food Chem 53:528
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anagnostopoulos, C.J., Aplada Sarli, P., Liapis, K. et al. Validation of Two Variations of the QuEChERS Method for the Determination of Multiclass Pesticide Residues in Cereal-Based Infant Foods by LC–MS/MS. Food Anal. Methods 5, 664–683 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-011-9296-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-011-9296-z