Targeted and untargeted analysis of triazole fungicides and their metabolites in fruits and vegetables by UHPLC-orbitrap-MS2

• Published in: Food chemistry 2022-01, Vol.368, p.130860-130860, Article 130860
• Main Authors: Hergueta-Castillo, María Elena, López-Rodríguez, Encarnación, López-Ruiz, Rosalía, Romero-González, Roberto, Garrido Frenich, Antonia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fruits; QuEChERS; SLE; Triazole fungicides; UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS2; Vegetables
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.130860

•Parent and metabolite triazole fungicides were simultaneously determined.•Analytical procedure based on SLE, QuEChERS and UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS2 was developed.•More than 30% of the analyzed fruits and vegetables contained triazole residues.•Suspect screening was also carried out detecting other pesticides in the samples. Two extraction methods based on solid liquid extraction and Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe procedure were developed for the determination of 21 triazole compounds and 5 metabolites, including triazole derivative metabolites as 1,2,4-triazole and 1,2,4-triazol 1-yl-acetic, in courgette, orange, grape and strawberry. The analysis was performed in 10.5 min, using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to Q-Orbitrap mass analyser. The proposed method was validated according to SANTE 12682/2019. Limits of quantification were ≤10 µg kg−1 for all the compounds, except for 1,2,4-triazol, 1,2,4-triazol 1-yl-acetic, difenoconazole-alcohol and prothioconazole that were 50 µg kg−1. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of 30 samples. More than 30% of these samples contained residues of triazole compounds. The fungicide most frequently found was myclobutanil. Furthermore, a suspect screening analysis was carried out to search pesticides present in the samples, detecting some of them at concentrations higher than Maximum Residue Limits.