Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of 32 pyrethroid pesticides in fruits and vegetables: A comparative study

In this study, multi-residue analysis methods for 32 pyrethroids in fruit and vegetable samples were established in both GC–MS/MS and UHPLC-MS/MS. The parameters that affecting the ionization efficiencies of pyrethroids in UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS, including ion source temperature, in-source fragmentation, and mobile phase conditions were thoroughly investigated to guarantee better performance. These two techniques were comprehensively compared in terms of recovery, LOQ, linearity, and matrix effects. In general, UHPLC-MS/MS was found suitable for more pesticides than GC–MS/MS. Lower LOQs were obtained for most of the selected pyrethroids in UHPLC-MS/MS. Similar results were obtained in terms of recoveries and RSDs for the validated pesticides in fortification experiments. A total of 136 real samples were analyzed by both techniques, obtaining similar results. The results suggest that UHPLC-MS/MS offers a suitable alternative to GC–MS/MS in the routine analysis of pyrethroids in fruits and vegetables.