Method for routine screening of pesticides and metabolites in meat based baby-food using extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A simple and complete multiresidue method has been developed for the routine determination of 236 pesticides and degradation products, in meat based baby-food. This original approach combines a modified Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS) sample preparation method using a triple partitioning extraction step with water/ACN/hexane and a system composed of GC with programmable temperature vaporization injector hyphenated to an IT-MS. Detection was performed in full scan mode, with one quantification ion and one identification ion. We firstly report here the hexane addition in the extraction step to eliminate a major part of lipophile co-extracts. Direct consequences were the increasing of method sensitivity and the diminishment of the frequency of maintenance of the analytical instrument. The recovery data were obtained by spiking blank samples at three concentration levels (10, 50 and 200 mu g/kg) over five replicates, yielding average recoveries in the range 70-121% with a RSD evaluated between 2-15%. Linearity was fixed in the range of 10-300 mu g/kg with determination coefficients (R(2)) superior or equal to 0.9814 for all target analytes. Best LODs and LOQs were established as 0.03 and 0.1 mu g/kg, respectively. Total instrumental analysis of all molecules was carried out in less than 1 h.