Simultaneous determination of 98 pesticide residues in strawberries using UPLC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS

Abstract

Strawberries are a popular fruit but pesticide residues on strawberries can pose a risk to human health. We established a multi-residue gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method for analysis of 98 pesticide residues on strawberries. A total of 26 pesticides were detected, and the detection percent ranged between 0.23% and 18.18%. The total sample detection percent was 39.32%. The pesticides with a relatively high detection percent were procymidone, pyrimethanil, acetamiprid, carbendazim, iprodione, tridemorph, chlormequat, fluazinam, prochloraz, and myclobutanil. The dietary risk assessment showed large differences in the acute and chronic exposure risk entropy values of various dietary pesticide exposures between different age groups and genders. They ranged from 0.1665% to 55.7224% and 0.0003% to 66.2687%, respectively. Both were less than 100% and within an acceptable safety range. There were different levels of pesticide residues on strawberries and most strawberries had residues of multiple pesticides. The levels of pesticide residues on strawberries were low, and there was no acute or chronic risk to humans via strawberry consumption.