Multi-residue determination of 325 pesticides in chicken eggs with EMR-Lipid clean-up by UHPLC–MS/MS and GC–MS/MS

Abstract

Eggs are one of the most common foods in the world, and their safety is a major concern for the public. We aimed to develop a novel clean-up approach named Bond Elut Enhanced Matrix Removal-Lipid (EMR-Lipid) for the simultaneous determination of 325 pesticides in the chicken egg by UHPLC–MS/MS and GC–MS/MS. The initial step of extraction was adopted by acetonitrile with 5% formic acid and subsequent adoption of EMR-Lipid d-SPE for further clean-up. Compared with the traditional C18 procedure, EMR-Lipid clean-up achieved a superior degreasing effect. The recoveries of at least 85% of pesticides were in the range of 60–120% at three fortified levels and the relative standard deviation of nearly 96% of analytes were within the limits of criteria. Improved linearity was evaluated using a matrix-matched calibration at eight concentrations in the range 0.1–40 µg/kg; the correlation coefficients of 309 analytes were exceeding 0.99. The new method offered quick, reliable and consistent detection and quantification of 325 pesticide residues, thereby demonstrating promising future for sample testing.