Pesticide determination in sweet peppers using QuEChERS and LC-MS/MS

In this work, a rapid, effective, and safe method, generating only a small amount of waste, based on the citrate version of QuEChERS was optimized and validated for multiresidue determination of pesticides of different classes in sweet green peppers, determined by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The matrix components influenced the measurement of the pesticides by the developed analysis technique, so that, analytical curves were prepared using pesticide-free matrix extracts for quantification of the analytes. The method provides satisfactory accuracy verified by recoveries of 70-120%, and good precision (coefficients of variation ≤20%). It also showed selectivity, linearity of response, and lower limits of quantification than the maximum limit of residue for each compound, as established by ANVISA and Codex Alimentarius.