Pesticide residues in chicken eggs - A sample preparation methodology for analysis by gas and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

A sample preparation method was developed for the analysis of chicken eggs to determine 97 GC and 81 LC amenable residues, including organophosphates, organochlorines, pyrethroids, triazoles, carboxyl-containing compounds, and the indicator PCBs. Hereby, considerations were given to the recoveries of the analytes, the method's suitability for routine analysis, and the assessment of the clean-up effect, for which a simple thin layer chromatography was implemented to visualize the most important lipid classes. The procedure consisted of (I) the extraction by matrix solid phase dispersion, and the clean-up by means of (II) small-scale gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and (III) two different solid phase extractions (SPE) for GC and LC amenable analytes, as well as (IV) the quantification using GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS.

Application of the precolumn back-flush technology in pesticide residue analysis: a practical view.

Precolumn back-flushing is a matrix minimization technique in GC in which the carrier gas flow of the precolumn is reversed after the transfer of the highest boiling analyte to the analytical column. Practical details concerning this technology have rarely been published although it is widely used. This paper now focuses on the practical implementation of precolumn back-flushing for pesticide residue analysis of complex food matrices.