The aim of this application note is to demonstrate the performance of the Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 9610 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to the Thermo Scientific™ TRACE™ 1610 GC equipped with programmable temperature vaporizing injector (PTV) for the determination of trace level pesticide residues in baby food.
An AcquireX workflow implemented on the Orbitrap ID-X Tribrid mass spectrometer was evaluated for the analysis of 250 pesticides spiked into strawberry matrix to demonstrate the efficiency of the workflow for identifying the pesticides spiked at different levels. Detection and identification were determined by matching experimentally acquired MS and MS/MS data to validated spectral libraries. The efficiency of the AcquireX workflow was evaluated against a standard data-dependent acquisition and dynamic exclusion method that did not utilize an exclusion list.
In this study, the quantitative performance of the Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 9000 triple quadrupole GC-MS/MS system was assessed for the analysis of more than 200 pesticides in baby food at ultra low concentrations (as low as 0.025 μg/kg).
We present a multi-residue instrumental method that can be applied for high-throughput screening and semi-quantitation of pesticide residues in food matrices at or below the current legislative requirements. A high-resolution, accurate-mass mass spectrometer operated in Full Scan – Variable Data-Independent Analysis (FS-vDIA)* mode provided an option for full spectrum filtering, retrospective analysis, and multi-parameter-based compound identification. The method was validated for 328 target pesticides, with an option for the future extension to a larger number. (*vDIA not available in US.)
The Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 8000 Evo triple quadrupole GC-MS is an excellent tool for the control of MRL levels in food commodities. The enhanced velocity optics (EVO) driving EvoCell collision cell technology provide high SRM transition speeds, precision, and sensitivity for even complex methods involving several pesticides in a short run time. This application is focused on the analysis of 247 compounds in two different herbal juices, Aloe vera and Amla (Indian gooseberry), demonstrating the potential of the method to detect trace level compounds at concentrations as low as 1-2 ng/g.
