Safety of agricultural products: multicomponent determination of pesticide residues in cereals

Abstract

Introduction. Cereal grain is an important part of the human daily diet and belongs to a large number of food items produced and consumed throughout the world. Cereals are cultivated using a long list of chemical plant protection products (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, growth regulators). In this connection, the analysis of pesticide residues, including optimization, development of monitoring methods, and programs, is of particular importance. Purpose of the work. To create a multicomponent method for determining residual amounts of pesticides of various chemical classes and their metabolites in cereals. Material and methods. The identification and quantitative determination of the active substances of pesticides of various classes (neonicotinoids, triazoles, imidazoles, pyrethroids, organophosphorus compounds, strobilurins, etc.) in the joint presence were performed by methods based on the use of liquid and gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. The QuEChERS technology was used as a sample preparation method, based on the extraction of pesticides with an organic solvent from a homogenized grain sample in the presence of salts containing citrate buffer and purification of the extracts from polar compounds by solid-state dispersion extraction. Results. The developed multicomponent method for determining the residual amounts of pesticides of various chemical classes and their metabolites (40 items in total) in cereals was used to control the levels of xenobiotics studied in wheat, barley and corn samples produced in various regions of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Leningrad, Orel, Omsk, Voronezh, Ryazan, Rostov, Volgograd regions, Krasnodar Area), as well as in rice grain (the country of origin is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam) purchased using a consumer buying process. The identified levels of individual active substances were significantly lower than the established values of the maximum allowable level. Conclusion. The developed method is aimed at methodological support of food safety control.