Identification and quantification of some pesticide metabolites from vegetables by GC-TOF-MS and LC-MS-QQQ

Abstract

Considering the international situation regarding the residues of pesticides in vegetables and fruits and the requirement for sensitive and reliable analytical methods that are able to ensure the compliance of marketed food commodities with the law on food safety, the aim of this paper was the identification and determination of some degradation products and metabolites of ten most often used pesticides. Two analytical approaches are proposed and used for the development of reliable screening, quantification and confirmation of pesticides metabolites in different vegetables. The proposed methods have different approaches than the other multi-residue methods for vegetables allowing the extensive investigation of previously undetectable or unknown pesticide metabolites in vegetables. These methods were tested on cherry tomato, cucumber, and chili pepper, some of the most widely consumed vegetables. The results suggests that spraying pesticides in high doses lead to high levels of pesticide residues in the case of some studied vegetables and the concentration of metabolites together concentration of parent pesticide must be taken into account in order to establish the MRL’s in vegetables and fruits.