Modern pesticide analysis is extremely challenging due to the diversity of compounds required to be reported, especially in the area of food safety control. The pressure to report large numbers of pesticides quickly makes it attractive to use large single injection methods. Triple quad MS has emerged as a primary screening technique due to its high sensitivity and selectivity against matrix. Presented is a comparison of both LC and GC sample introduction techniques coupled to triple quad MS screening of over 500 pesticides at ppb levels.

Chloramphenicol (CAP) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with historical veterinary uses in all major food-producing animals. It has serious side effects on humans that may cause aplastic anemia, and suspected carcinogen effect. Though banned for use in all food-producing animals by the EU, USA and Canada, residues of CAP at unacceptable levels continue to be found in food imports. We describe a simple sample preparation procedure followed by a high-speed LC separation and detection by a triple quadrupole MS operated in SRM mode and validation per European Commission Decision 2002/657/EC.

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are ubiquitous and persistent pollutants that bioaccumulate in animals and humans. The potential toxicity of these chemicals has fueled efforts to develop robust analytical techniques for measuring low levels of PFCs in human matrices. We describe a quantitative selected reaction monitoring (SRM) assay developed for six PFCs using the Thermo Scientific TSQ Vantage triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) coupled to a PFC-free Thermo Scientific Accela LC system.

Mycotoxins are the toxic secondary metabolites produced by many species of microscopic filamentary fungi occurring on field cereals, including barley. There is a trend toward the simplification of sample preparation procedures as much as possible. Full spectral data acquisition techniques are also preferred because of their ease of usage, along with the possibility of retrospective archived data mining. We introduce a multi-mycotoxin method for analysis of 32 mycotoxins in beer based on very simple sample preparation and UHPLC coupled with full spectral Orbitrap MS detection.

Phenolic compounds are of particular environmental importance due to their relatively high toxicity at low levels and their presence in environmental waters and organic matter, following degradation of a range of industrial products such as pesticides and herbicides, as well as naturally occurring humic substances and tannins. We demonstrate analysis optimization by variation of column chemistry, and the viability of reducing stationary phase particle size to significantly increase analysis speed, while maintaining separation parameters and increasing sensitivity.