Pesticide residue analysis in fresh produce by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

GC-MS-MS was used to analyze for multiple pesticide residues in fresh fruits and vegetables. Nineteen pesticides, including fungicides, herbicides, organophosphorus insecticides and chlorinated insecticides were spiked into seven different fruit and vegetable matrices and analyzed. The specificity of GC-MS-MS provided for low detection limits (ranging from 1-5 ppb) and unambiguous spectral confirmation for the target compounds in these complex matrices. Good precision was obtained (RSD values ranged from 1 to 9%), even at the 10 ppb level, without extensive sample clean-up steps.