Monitoring multi-class pesticide residues in fresh fruits and vegetables by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

A new analytical method was developed using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry for the routine analysis of 31 multi-class pesticide residues and applied to approximately 50 fresh fruit and vegetable samples (green bean, cucumber, pepper, tomato, eggplant, watermelon, melon and zucchini). Extraction of the pesticides with ethyl acetate was carried out. The optimal ionisation conditions were selected for each pesticide in the same run. The procedure was validated and the values of some merit figures, such as recovery, precision, linear range, detection limit and quantification limit for each pesticide were calculated together with its calculated expanded uncertainty (U). The average recoveries in cucumber obtained for each pesticide ranged between 74 and 105% at two different fortification levels (n = 10 each) that ranged between 9 and 250 ng g−1 (depending on the pesticide). The uncertainty associated to the analytical method was lower than 23% for all compounds tested. The calculated limits of detection and quantitation were typically <1 ng g−1 that were much lower than the maximum residue levels established by European legislation.