Determination of Pesticides in Carrots by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

ABSTRACT

A sensitive and selective method was developed to determine pesticides in carrots by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry following the development of an optimized extraction procedure. The method was validated for 30 organochlorine pesticides for gas chromatography with electron capture detection obtaining limit of detection from 0.18 to 0.92 µg/kg except for cis- and trans-permenthrin. Twenty-six carrot samples were analyzed and six pesticides were detected. The results compared with the accepted maximum residue levels in correlation to crop origin.

KEYWORDS:

• Carrots
• gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD)
• gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID)
• gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
• pesticides