Determination of multiclass, semi-polar pesticide residues in fatty fish muscle tissue by gas and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

With the aim of monitoring multiclass semi-polar pesticide residues in freshwater fatty fish, two QuEChERS approaches (so-called acetate buffered and unbuffered versions) were evaluated for the determination of 77 pesticide residues. Compounds were selected according to the dominant rainfed agriculture activities in South America. Unbuffered QuEChERS was finally chosen for validation purposes owing that it provided the best results in terms of recovery yields. Method performance was evaluated in two instrumental systems, liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) in Scheduled MRM™ algorithm available on hybrid quadrupole – linear ion trap (QLIT) instrument, and gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC–MS) under selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Spiking experiments were carried out to determine the trueness, precision, linearity, limit of quantification of the method as well as matrix effect. The Unbuffered QuECHERS method described here: • Was validated for the analysis of 67 pesticide residues in fish muscle tissue. • Presented quantification limits in the range 1–15 μg kg(−1) for the vast majority of the studied compounds. • Enable environmental monitoring of pesticide residues in fish due to their low LOQs.