Determination of 113 pesticides in hot pepper powder in Korea

In five regions of Korea, a total of 963 hot pepper powder samples were analyzed for 113 pesticides and one synergist using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. For three years, sampling was performed every producing day in production plants according to ISO 24153 : 2009 methods. The limit of detection and limit of quantification ranges were 0.17–1.46 and 0.52–4.44 µg kg(−1), respectively. The recovery ranges were 62.8–128.6% when spiked with 10 and 100 µg kg(−1) of pesticides. Certified reference materials, such as chlorfenapyr and indoxacarb, were used for the validation of the analytical method. In total, 21 pesticides and one synergist were detected. Six pesticides, chlorfenapyr, indoxacarb, chlorantraniliprole, cypermethrin, difenoconazole, and pendimethalin, were detected at more than 50%, and nine pesticides, cyhalothrin, fenvalerate, picoxystrobin, deltamethrin, pyridalyl, propiconazole, iprodione, prochloraz, and bifenthrin, were detected at more than 10%. All monitoring results were under the Korean maximum residue limit.