Simultaneous determination and dietary intake risk assessment of 60 herbicide residues in aquatic products

A sensitive and rugged analytical method was first established to simultaneously determine 60 herbicides in aquatic products with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (GC-MS/MS). After extraction with acetonitrile (MeCN), NaCl and anhydrous Na2SO4 were added, concentrated supernatants were directly passed through the Carb/NH2 solid phase extraction column. Then, the cartridge was rinsed with elution solution (MeCN/toluene, 3:1, v/v), followed by GC-MS/MS analysis with multiple reaction monitoring. An excellent linearity (1.0-100.0 mu g/L) with R2 value of >= 0.9991 was obtained, and the limits of quantification were 0.018-3.852 mu g/kg. Satisfactory recov-eries (70.8 %-117.6 %) with RSDs below 11.0 % of herbicide residues were obtained at spiked levels of 0.010-0.050 mg/kg. Furthermore, herbicide residues in actual aquatic products were analyzed, and the acute/chronic risk assessment of dietary exposure was carried out. The wide use of herbicides for controlling weed and removing moss and harmful algae may obviously increase the risk of contamination of the aquaculture environment and fishery products. Therefore, considerable attention and more research are necessary to monitor residue levels for herbicides in aquatic products and ensure the quality of marine products and consumer safety.

Automated summary

A sensitive and rugged method using GC-MS/MS was developed for the simultaneous determination of 60 herbicides in aquatic products. Excellent linearity (1.0-100.0 μg/L) with R2 value of >= 0.9991 was achieved, and the limits of quantification ranged from 0.018 to 3.852 μg/kg. The method was successfully applied to analyze herbicide residues in actual aquatic products, and the risk assessment of dietary exposure was conducted. The findings highlight the need for monitoring herbicide residue levels in aquatic products to ensure consumer safety and maintain the quality of marine products.