Detection and monitoring of pesticide residues
Researcher: Florina Dorina Covaciu
Keywords: organochlorine pesticides, QuEChERS, GC-ECD.
Description
“A residue is a minute amount of active substance from a pesticide that may remain in a treated crop“, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Consequently, the European Commission has established Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) to ensure consumer protection against unacceptable levels of pesticide residues.
The development of analytical techniques is increasingly focused on the precis detection of molecules present in infinitesimal quantities.
Due to their high heterogeneity, pesticides are chemicals that are difficult to classify. They play a crucial role in achieving the desired productivity in modern agriculture, and it is likely that they will remain indispensable in the future. Without these agrochemicals, it is practically impossible to grow enough vegetables and fruits to feed the world’s growing population.
However, despite their indispensable role in crops production, pesticides are hazardous substances with harmful effects on the human body.For this reason, there is growing concern about food safety and quality.
The strict regulations established by the European Union and the World Health Organization, aimed at preventing the contamination of food products and environmental elements with pesticides, necessitate the development of appropriate analytical methods for detecting target analytes at very low concentrations. Additionally, even when the analyte is already present in a solution (e.g. in water or juice), there are many practical difficulties to overcome. These challenges are relate to the sensitivity and selectivity of the chosen technique, as the concentration of interfering compounds in the matrix is much higher than that of the analyte of interest.
The physical and chemical properties of pesticides vary significantly, making the determination of their residues in any matrix quite difficult, leading to numerous problems in developing a „universal” method for the analytical determination of residue.
In 2003, Anastassiades et al. developed and introduced a new extraction method for determining pesticide residues, which they named QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe).
To significantly reduce testing time and provide fast and reliable results, our laboratory optimized the QuEChERS extraction method and developed a multi-residue method for the simultaneous separation, identification and quantification of 30 types of pesticides. The analysis is completed in less than 30 minutes.
Applications
Areas of application: research and development, smart specialization fields in Bioeconomy.
Systems:
- Identification and quantification of pesticide residues in food, plant and environmental matrices
- Testing for a wide range of pesticide residues to ensure compliance with maximum residue limits (MRLs) set by the European Union for various matrices
Industries:
- Vegetable and fruit producers using conventional agriculture
- Vegetable and fruit producers interested in transitioning to organic agriculture
- Soil investigation and remediation activities, and land conversion
- Dairy and cheese production sectors, targeting contamination with pesticides along the water – soil – feed – dairy products chain
Infrastructure
The Gas Chromatography laboratory, part of the Department of Mass Spectrometry, Chromatography, and Applied Physics, is equipped with an electron capture detector (GC-ECD), Trace GC Ultra, Thermo Fisher Scientific.
- The equipment meets the requirements of modern laboratories, provides high productivity and increased sensitivity
- The Trace GC Ultra platform combines the reliability of TRACE GC with extensive system utilization, performance and automation
- A major advantage of the ECD detector is its sensitivity to halogenated compounds, enabling extremely low detection limits for many of these compounds
- Another advantage of the ECD detector is its selectivity for electronegative compounds. The response factor, and therefore selectivity, can vary between 1 and 106, depending on the degree of electron affinity of the molecules
Advantages
INCDTIM offers RDI (Research, Development, and Innovation) services based on comprehensive, rapid, accurate and high-quality pesticide residue analysis in complex matrices.
The QuEChERS method has many advantages over traditional extraction methods: high recovery factors, applicability to a wide range of pesticides with different polarities and volatilities – including difficult analytes.
The amount of solvents and waste is very low and no toxic solvents are used.
Estimated costs
The cost of a determination is 350 lei (excluding VAT)/per sample and includes:
time of use of the apparatus;
labor, which includes personnel costs and indirect costs associated with sample preparation, analysis and interpretation of results, and the preparation of the analysis/research report.