Quantification of organophosphate insecticides and herbicides in vegetable samples using the 'Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe' (QuEChERS) method and a high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technique

A Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe (QuEchERS) extraction was developed and followed by selective analysis using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the quantification of eighteen pesticides in vegetable samples. This method was accurate (⩾99.5%), and it exhibited limits of detection and quantification values in the 0.006-0.091 and 0.020-0.314μgkg-1 ranges, respectively. Furthermore, the coefficients of variations (⩾0.9999) were less than 1% at the low μgkg-1 end of the method. Mean recoveries ranged between 94% and 102%, and relative standard deviations were below 10%. Based on these results, the methodology was proven to be highly efficient, robust, and suitable for monitoring the maximum residue limits (MRL) compliance of a wide range of commodity/pesticide combination. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of vegetable samples that were collected from different government farmers' markets and street shops in urban areas. The presence of target pesticides was found in the range of 0.016 and 50.85μgkg-1.