GC/Q-TOF农残筛查工作流程

Due to the complexity and variety of food matrices, a constantly growing interest in food safety, and an increasing list of pesticides, residue analysis has become a more complex task that requires high selectivity, sensitivity, and a high throughput approach for data analysis. State-of-the-art pesticide screening requires the consideration of more than 1,000 pesticides and their metabolites. Of these, as many as 600 to 800 compounds are included in routine monitoring programs.

The increasing global emphasis on pesticide screening is reflected in the implementation of European Union (EU) guideline SANCO/12571/2013. The most recent revision specifies criteria for qualitative screening without the use of expensive standards for each pesticide in each batch of samples.

An accurate-mass approach in pesticide screening using quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF) offers more reliable pesticide identification, and allows for a virtually unlimited number of compounds to be screened simultaneously.

Gas chromatography (GC) coupled to a Q-TOF mass spectrometer provides an ideal analytical tool that can be used to screen, confirm, and quantify trace levels of both

target and unknown compounds, even in complex matrices. This application note describes the creation of a curated GC/Q-TOF exact mass electron ionization (EI) library of pesticides and the development of an accurate mass pesticide screening workflow designed to help improve reliability and increase throughput of pesticide residue analysis. More than 740 EI spectra of pesticides were generated using the

high-resolution Agilent 7890 GC, coupled to an Agilent 7200 Series GC/Q-TOF System.

Conclusions 

The accurate mass power of the Agilent 7200 GC/Q-TOF System has enabled the development of the first commercially available exact mass pesticide library for GC/Q-TOF. A screening workflow using the unique All Ions tool has also been used successfully to screen for pesticide residues in five different food matrices.