Replacing Multiple 50-Minute GC and GC-MS/SIM Analyses with One 15-Minute Full-Scan GC-MS Analysis for Nontargeted Pesticides Screening and >10x Productivity Gain Application

Pesticide analysis of fruits and vegetables requires finding trace-level residues in complex matrices. Up to now, the typical trade-off is between sensitivity and confirmation. Therefore, multiple injections are needed for screening and confirmation using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or GC-MS in combination with GC with element-selective detection. With the recent introduction of hardware and software tools, for example, capillary flow three-way splitter, trace ion detection, and deconvolution, a 15-minute fast analysis can match the results obtained from three injections of approximately 50 minutes each. A table comparing the results from the Food and Drug Administration/Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA/CFSAN) procedure using the traditional multi-instrument approach and the new Agilent single injection approach shows that Agilent's fast analysis is capable of finding all the target analytes in less than one-tenth of the current FDA/CFSAN total analysis time. Replacing Multiple 50-Minute GC and GC-MS/SIM Analyses with One 15-Minute Full-Scan GC-MS Analysis for Nontargeted Pesticides Screening and >10x Productivity Gain