Development of GC–MS/MS method for environmental monitoring of 49 pesticide residues in food commodities in Al-Rass, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The harmful effects of pesticide residues are a threat to our health. Therefore, the current study aimed to validate a simple method for the determination of pesticide residues in commonly consumed fruits and vegetables from Al-Rass, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 1430 samples were collected from a local market and then analyzed for monitoring of 49 pesticide residues. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) multi-residue extraction method followed by gas chromatography equipped with triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) was successfully implemented. This 17-min-run analytical method detects and quantifies pesticide residues with acceptable validation performance parameters in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, the limit of quantification, accuracy, and precision. The linear range of the calibration curves ranged from 10 to 300 µg/L, all the pesticide LODs ranged from 0.0005 to 0.0024 mg/kg, and the pesticide LOQs ranged from 0.0011 to 0.0047 mg/kg. The recovery values at the three fortification levels ranged from 78 % to 107 %, and the precision values (expressed as RSD%) were less than 20 % for all of the investigated analytes. The results showed that 138 (9.65 %) of the analyzed samples were contaminated with pesticide residues, 40 (2.80 %) of the analyzed samples exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of the European Commission regulations (EC) for pesticides residues, 98 (6.85 %) of the analyzed samples were contaminated with residues below the MRL, and 1292 (90.35 %) of the analyzed samples were pesticide residue-free. Coriander contained the highest percentage (46.88 %) of pesticide residues, particularly tetradifon that representing 18.75 % noncompliance with the MRL, followed by parsley, with 20.59 % pesticide residues (10.29 % non-compliance). Multiple pesticide residues were observed most frequently in tomatoes and dates which were contaminated with buprofezin and ethion respectively.