Automated sample cleanup for pesticide multiresidue analysis. III. Evaluation of complete system for screening subtolerance residues in vegetables.

An automated continuous flow sample cleanup system intended for rapid screening of foods for pesticide residues in fresh and processed vegetables has been developed. Recovery and precision data for 8 pesticides in each of 3 crops are compared for the automated and manual procedures. Average recovery for samples fortified with pesticides between 0.026 and 0.277 ppm was 98% for the automated system and 92% for the manual procedure. Average coefficient of variation was 6.6% for the automated system and 4.2% for the manual procedure. In another evaluation, the automated system gave an average recovery of 95% for 12 pesticides commonly found in imported foods; the manual procedure gave an average recovery of 91%. Thus, the results obtained so far indicate that the automated system for sample cleanup gives results comparable to those obtained by manual procedures.