Simultaneous determination of 106 pesticides in nuts by LC-MS/MS using freeze-out combined with dispersive solid-phase extraction purification

As a result of the low water content and high fat matrices in nuts, it is very difficult to simultaneously determine multi-pesticides in trace levels. Here, a sample pretreatment method was developed in which, microwave-assisted solvent extraction was firstly used to extract pesticides, and then a two-step cleanup method was conducted combining freeze-out with dispersive solid-phase extraction to remove the lipidic matrix. By this way, 106 pesticides were simultaneously determined in the complicated nut sample by using an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography coupled with a tandem mass spectrometer. Average recoveries were 75.3-119.3% with relative standard deviations <14% at three concentration levels. The limits of detection and quantification were in the ranges of 0.3-3.0 and 1.0-10.0 mu g/kg, respectively. Furthermore, the method was successfully applied to the determination of pesticides in 180 commercial nut samples.