A Streamlined Single-Step Salting-Out Approach for Chiral and Achiral Pesticide Analysis in Hazelnut-Based Beverages

The increasing consumption of plant-based beverages (PBBs), driven by ethical and health-related reasons, highlights the need for robust analytical methods assessing their chemical safety. Among these products, hazelnut-based beverages are of particular interest in Italy, where hazelnut production is economically relevant. A rapid one-step extraction procedure was developed for the multiresidue determination of selected chiral and achiral pesticides in PBBs by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). The method combines matrix precipitation and analyte extraction in a single step, providing a simple and efficient workflow. Validation, carried out in hazelnut beverage, included recovery, precision, linearity, decision limit (CCα), and detection capability (CCβ) evaluation. As no European Union maximum residue levels (MRLs) are available for PBBs, provisional MRLs for hazelnut milk were derived from raw hazelnut MRLs using a recipe-based processing factor, according to Regulation (EC) No 396/2005. The method achieved recoveries of 60%-90%, intra- and inter-day precision generally below 20%, CCα values of 0.001-0.016 µg L^-1, CCβ values of 0.002-0.027 µg L^-1, and good linearity for most analytes (R² > 0.99). The proposed procedure is suitable for pesticide residue analysis in PBBs, such as hazelnut-based beverages, and represents a valuable approach for monitoring emerging food matrices, for which residue data and regulatory limits are still lacking.