Latest analytical methods for the residual pesticides in foods

The analytical method for residual pesticides in foods is required to determine the target compounds at sub-ppm levels in various kinds of food matrix. Moreover, the number of possible residues including metabolites is over several hundreds, thus multiresidue analysis has become accepted by many analysts. Simplified extraction, minimum cleanup, and highly selective detection are quite important steps to accomplish such multi-analysis effectively. Extraction and cleanup procedures might be taken by the laboratory automation systems, instead of the manual methods, because the introduction of these systems can contribute to the improvement of quality control in analysis with reducing skilled manpower. This review describes matrix solid phase dispersion and supercritical fluid extraction in the extract section, and miniature size column and gel permeation chromatographies in the cleanup section. AED-GC and several kinds of GC-MS are also described as highly selected and sensitive detectors.