Emerging pesticide residue issues and analytical approaches

The 46th Annual Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop of 2009 (FPRW 2009) held in St. Pete Beach, FL, is the latest in an annual tradition drawing scientists from U.S. federal and state government laboratories, industry, and other laboratories worldwide. In 2009, selected FPRW presenters were invited to contribute to this special issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry with a section devoted to emerging pesticide residue issues and analytical approaches. What follows is the written record of what should become a scientific conversation launched at FPRW 2009. There are two distinct approaches to organic residue analysis: instrumental methods and assays. In much of the world, scientists primarily rely on laboratories equipped with instrumentation for analysis, usually gas chromatography and liquid chromatography with some type of selective detector. In the discussion of instrumental approaches, the focus is on chromatography with mass spectrometry as a detection method. Approaches such as biomonitoring and assays fall outside the traditional instrumental method approach to residue analysis. Assays that do not require laboratory equipment are of greater interest for screening and are well-suited to field use. Regardless of the analytical method, the success of multiresidue analysis relies on the appropriate choice of sample preparation and cleanup methodologies. Many new sample preparation and cleanup approaches used for pesticide and other small molecule contaminant residue analyses in a variety of complex sample matrices are discussed in this special issue. The goal of these approaches is to reduce overall analysis time and solvent consumption without compromising the analytical results.