Quantitative Analysis of Multiresidue Pesticides Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.

Despite the fact that pesticides help increase food production, widespread application of pesticides has resulted in negative impact in the environment and human health. Routine and comprehensive screening of pesticides in food and water is important for regulatory agencies to ensure that concentrations of toxic pesticides are below maximum allowable levels. Regardless of the pesticides that are not GC amenable, GC-MS still dominates the analysis of pesticides. The focus of the current chapter is a step-by-step method for GC-MS approaches in analysis of several classes of pesticides, including organochlorines, organophosphates, and triazines. GC-MS is superior or at least equivalent to LC-MS method and derivatization is not required prior to instrumental analysis.