Pesticide residues in maize by LC-MS/MS

The liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) with ESI was applied for the detection of 60 pesticides residues in maize, extracted with QuEChERS. The average recoveries for all analites were 83.7-121.9% (RSDs 4.82-15.34%). The obtained R2 values for all investigated pesticides were higher than 0.99. The LOQs of 0.01 mg/kg confirm that the method is appropriate for the determination of pesticide residues in all investigated vegetables according to the regulations of the Serbian and EU MRLs. One sample was with no detected pesticide residues and in three samples only one pesticide residue was detected. The multiple detections were confirmed in three analyzed samples. All the detections were below the MRLs.