Organochlorine pesticides and pyrethroids in Chinese tea by screening and confirmatory detection using GC-NCI-MS and GC-MS/MS.

One hundred and one tea samples including green tea, dark tea, scented tea, black tea, and oolong tea were screened and confirmed for the contamination of 31 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and 19 pyrethroids (PYs) by gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (GC-NCI-MS) and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). 50 pesticides, 3 deuterium-labeled PYs, and 24 (13)C-labeled OCPs were separated well with the limits of detection (LODs) ranging from 0.02 to 4.5 μg/kg for GC-NCI-MS, and the positive samples were verified by GC-MS/MS with LODs of 0.1-5.0 μg/kg. High detection rates for some PYs, such as 63.4% for bifenthrin (not detected (ND)-3.848 mg/kg), 55.4% for λ-cyhalothrin (ND-3.244 mg/kg), 46.5% for cypermethrin (ND-0.499 mg/kg), and 24.8% for fenvalerate (ND-0.217 mg/kg), were found in the 101 tea samples. Endosulfan, DDTs, HCHs, and heptachlor, the persistent OCPs, were frequently detected with rates of 63.4% (ND-1.802 mg/kg), 56.4% (ND-0.411 mg/kg), 24.8% (ND-0.377 mg/kg), and 15.8% (ND-0.100 mg/kg), respectively.