The fate of thiamethoxam and its main metabolite clothianidin in peaches and the wine-making process.

Thiamethoxam is widely used to control a large number of insect pests of peach crops. Understanding the fate of thiamethoxam and its main metabolite clothianidin in field peach, during storage, and in the processing of peach wine is of vital importance for food safety. The thiamethoxam and clothianidin were separated and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Field and storage results showed that the half-lives of thiamethoxam were 4.9-5.5 and 10.3-15.8 days, respectively. The processing factors (PFs) of all the wine-making procedures were less than 1, and the PFs of the overall process ranged from 0.10 to 0.47. The highest elimination rate was obtained for thiamethoxam and clothianidin during the fermentation process. The results from this study could understand the dissipation kinetics and residual levels of thiamethoxam and clothianidin in peach, and also help to accurately assess their risks in the raw and wine-making process.