Detect and identify hundreds of known and unknown pesticides using the high identification power of mass spectrometers

Human exposure to pesticides through the food chain and water supplies is an issue of major concern due to the implicated health effects. Maximum Residue Limits have been established so that the application of these chemical compounds does not pose a risk to human health. Pesticide Residue Analysis in food and water resources has long been a challenging field for analytical chemists striving to provide accurate, precise, and robust methods.

Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Pesticide Residues and Their Metabolites provides a critical overview of the use of mass spectrometry (MS) techniques for the analysis of pesticide residues and their metabolites in food and environmental matrices. Each chapter is focused on a specific and well-defined topic which by itself provides important information to the interested reader. It also focuses on the identification capabilities and the quantitative potential of MS analyzers to achieve accurate and reproducible measurements of trace amounts of compounds in very complex matrices. It offers a review of significant recent advances in the field of MS analysis of pesticide residues including MS instrumentation, sample preparation techniques, chromatographic separations, and significant applications.

The book is organized in 10 chapters ranging from briefly covering the chemistry, the metabolism, and the environmental fate of pesticides to strategies based on MS for the identification of unknown pesticide transformation products formed by advanced oxidation processes.

With contributions from leading authorities Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Pesticide Residues and Their Metabolites features:

• Pesticides chemistry, legislation and risk assessment
• Advanced sample preparation techniques
• Recent advances in GC-MS and LC-MS
• Ionization techniques in MS
• MS analyzers
• Matrix effects in LC-MS
• Application of MS-based multiresidue methods for the target and nontarget screening of pesticides and their metabolites in food and environmental matrices
• Study of advanced oxidation processes by MS

Analytical and environmental chemists as well as scientists from other disciplines using, or intending to use, MS techniques for the analysis of complex food and environmental matrices in terms of pesticides and other types of contaminants will find this book a welcome addition to the field of Mass Spectrometry.

DESIPINA TSIPI is the Director of Food Safety & Quality Laboratories (including the Pesticide Residues Laboratory) of the General Chemical State Laboratory, Athens, Greece. She works in the field of pesticide residue analysis in foodstuffs and the environment using hyphenated MS techniques for over 20 years. Between 2003 and 2006, she joined the Panel of Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR-Panel) of the European Food Safety Authority. She is Founding Member and Current President of the Hellenic Society for Mass Spectrometry.