Abstract
Tenebrio molitor larva (mealworms) has recently attracted attention as a protein source for food and feed. The larva is generally fed with wheat bran, which can be possibly contaminated with glyphosate. To establish food safe standards, a rugged and effective analytical method for glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid, glufosinate, and their metabolites including 3-methylphosphinico-propionic acid, and N-acetyl glufosinate, in mealworms was optimized using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. An anionic polar pesticide column was used due to its high suitability for glyphosate. Acidified water and acetonitrile were used to extract the target compounds without contribution from various fatty and pigment interferences derived from brownish insects. Seven different clean-up procedures ((1) 50 mg C18 (2) 20 mg C18/Z-sep (3) PRiME hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) cartridge (4) 75 mg Z-sep, (5) 75 mg Z-sep+, (6) EMR-lipid cartridge, and (7) 50 mg ENVI-Carb) were compared. Due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, PRiME HLB was selected for clean-up. The recoveries of the target compounds were ranged from 86 to 96% with < 20% relative standard deviations. Therefore, this simple and effective method can be applied for the two pesticides and their metabolites in other edible insects or high-fat matrices.
Highlights
Tenebrio molitor larva has recently attracted attention as a protein source for food and feed
It was reported that an Acclaim® Mix-mode WAX-1 was applied to separate glyphosate in water, but after the analysis of 80–100 samples, metal ions accumulated during the analysis caused poor peak shape of glyphosate
An anion exchange (Dionex IonPac AS11) column was reported to be utilized at a high mobile phase of pH 11 using the alkaline-compatible HPLC components were required (QuPPe method)
Summary
Tenebrio molitor larva (mealworms) has recently attracted attention as a protein source for food and feed. Several edible insects including beetles, grasshoppers, honeybees, mealworms, and silkworms are used as alternative protein food sources due to high nutritional values (crude protein 39.3–64.4% and fat 14.4–33.7%) or for medicinal purposes in Republic of K orea[2] Of these insects, only mealworms are fed with wheat bran, possibly contaminated with glyphosate and glufosinate. To the best of our knowledge, no analytical method has not been reported for the analysis of glyphosate, glufosinate, and their metabolites in mealworms The properties of both amino acid class pesticides and samples with the large amount of fat and protein can make analysts very challenging in analyzing the target compounds in insects[3,4]. Another study improved the recoveries of 67 pesticides from lipophilic matrices (olive oil, olive, and avocado) by modifying the ratio of solvent/sample to minimize matrix effects originated of various food s amples[11]
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