Potential of liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation tandem mass spectrometry for determination of fosetyl-aluminium residues in dried hops

Abstract

New analytical procedure for the determination of fosetyl-aluminium in hop cones (also called "hops") was developed. Liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (LC-APCIMS/MS) allowed a highly selective determination of this fungicide which facilitated the sample preparation. The sufficiently low detection limit (1 mg/kg of dried hops) with the acceptable method performance characteristics (RSD 9%, recovery 76% - at the level of 10 mg/kg) complies with the need to inspect the observance of maximal residual limit 100 mg/kg. The application of LC-MS technique thus provided an effective way of fosetyl-aluminium determination in the complex hops matrix.