Simultaneous Determination of Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables by GC/MS (SCAN Mode) and HPLC

A method was developed for simultaneous determination of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. Residues were extracted from samples with acetonitrile, followed by a salting-out step and a partitioning step with n-hexane at the same time. Co-extractives were removed with ENVI-Carb/LC-NH2 mini-column cleanup. Analysis was performed by GC/MS (SCAN mode) and HPLC. Of the 139 pesticides spiked at 0.1 or 0.5 microgram/g into 6 fruits and vegetables (spinach, tomato, apple, radish, cabbage and carrot), recoveries of 117 pesticides were between 70 and 120%. This method is appropriate for determining these pesticides and for screening several other pesticides for which the recoveries were < or = 70% or > or = 120% (imazalil, etc.). The limits of detection for most pesticides in this method were equal to or lower than those of the bulletin method in Japan.