Determination of 52 hidden chemical pesticides in biopesticide products by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS

Abstract Addition of chemical pesticides in biopesticides are expected to be common, due to effect of pest control during plant protection. These hidden chemical pesticides may cause various food safety problems if consumed. The purpose of our study was to develop a method to determine 52 hidden chemical pesticides in three formulation biopesticide products. Optimizations of different parameters, such as the instrument analysis condition for target, the extraction, and the composition of clean-up materials were carried out. The developed method used acetonitrile as an extraction solvent for all biopesticide formulations. The composition of adsorbents was based on QuEChERS, called QuSEL which was a needle filter head, containing PSA, GCB, and MgSO4. Fifty-two chemical pesticides residues were then analyzed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS. The present results showed good linearity by correlation coefficients of more than 0.99 for all analyses. The LOQ ranged from 5.0 to 20.0 μg kg−1. Recoveries of 32 chemical pesticides ranged from 71.9% to 118.4% at the spiked level of 10, 50, and 100 μg kg−1, and 20 chemical pesticides ranged from 75.3% to 119.8% at the spiked level of 5, 25, and 50 μg kg−1. The developed method was applied for biopesticide products, and 9 samples were positive in 20 samples.