Flow-injection MS analysis as a simplified approach to pesticide screening in apples

Abstract

A fast and simplified method based on mass spectrometry analysis was developed for pesticide qualification in apple peel. The main feature of the method is flow-injection of the loop pre-defined sample volume directly to the MS source, with no chromatographic separation. Method performances were evaluated for five pesticides regularly used in apple orchard treatments. First, primary features of the method such as the loop injection dynamics, total analysis time, chronogramic peaks integrity and sensitivity were evaluated. Then the applicability of the method for qualitative and quantitative screening was assessed on citrate buffered QuEChERS cleaned-up apple peel samples. The developed method offers a possibility for simplified, more economic high throughput screening for pesticides in apples. The method is intended to be a tool for preliminary qualitative assessment of pesticides residues in fruit. Quantitative features of the method are analyte and sample preparation dependent, most certainly due to the lack of chromatography.

Keywords:

• Loop injection
• mass spectrometry
• qualitative analysis
• QuEChERS
• full scan

Author contributions

Darko Andjelkovic – Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – Review and Editing, Resources, Project Administration.

Milica Brankovic – Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualization, Writing – Review and Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technological development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (contract no. 451-03-68/2022-14/200383 and 451-03-68/2022-14/200124).