Extensive
residues of neonicotinoids (neonics) have been demonstrated
in food and the environment by routine monitoring measurement, but
little is known about the residue levels in “ready to eat”
dietary samples. To obtain a more accurate picture of dietary exposure
to total neonics, an ultrasensitive and effective cleanup analytical
method for the quantification of neonics in dietary samples was established
on the basis of cold-induced phase separation and pre-column dilution
injection liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry.
A total of 10 neonics were quantified in ultratrace amounts (ng/kg)
using stable isotope dilution, with calibration curves spanning 4
orders of magnitude. Satisfactory accuracy (73.5–109.2% for
the recoveries) and precision (0.6–13.2% for the relative standard
deviation ranges) were obtained in method validation. Moreover, tolerable
absolute matrix effects (0.89–1.09) were also obtained in 12
kinds of dietary matrices with weak relative matrix effects (2.8–12.6%).
The validated method was applied to the dietary samples collected
from the Chinese Total Diet Study, and the results showed that 75%
of the samples were contaminated with at least one neonicotinoid.
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