The analysis of cyhexatin residues in apples, pears and kiwi fruit using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as an initial screen for total tin, with confirmation by gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) has been used to determine concentrations of total tin in samples of apples, pears and kiwi fruit, following acid digestion. It was found that the background levels of tin in these fruits were normally below 0.06 mg/kg, which was equivalent to the target reporting limit for cyhexatin for this work of 0.2 mg/kg. The procedure was used to screen a total of 72 retail samples. Three apple samples contained tin at concentrations greater than 0.06 mg/kg. These three samples were re‐analysed by a second confirmatory method using gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC—MS) as the determinative step. Results obtained by this method demonstrated that, in fact, none of the samples contained cyhexatin residues at or above a reporting limit of 0.1 mg/kg. The use of ICP‐MS as a preliminary screen substantially reduced the number of samples requiring analysis by GC‐MS, thus reducing the cost of the survey (in terms of staff hours) by approximately 30%. The screening method could potentially be applied to other organometallic pesticide residues.