Implementing new GC-MS technology to stay ahead with your pesticides analysis

Significance of the Topic

The routine monitoring of pesticide and fumigant residues in food and environmental samples demands sensitive, robust and high-throughput analytical platforms. Advances in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS and GC-MS/MS) directly impact laboratory productivity, regulatory compliance and food safety risk management by improving instrument uptime, method sensitivity and selectivity.

Study Objectives and Overview

This work presents Thermo Fisher Scientific’s latest GC and GC-MS lineup and demonstrates its application to challenging analytes: ethylene oxide in dry matrices, multi-class pesticides in baby food and complex matrices such as black tea. Key goals include comparing new hardware and software features, optimizing chromatographic and mass spectral methods, and assessing performance in real-world sample analyses.

Methodology and Instrumental Setup

The outlined methods employ:

• Trace 1610 GC or Trace 1600 series GC with touchscreen interface and built-in diagnostics
• ISQ 7610 single quadrupole GC-MS or TSQ 9610 triple quadrupole GC-MS/MS with NeverVent™ source technology, AEI/ExtractaBrite™ ionization and XLXR extended dynamic range detector
• Orbitrap Exploris GC for high-resolution accurate-mass experiments
• TriPlus RSH SMART autosampler for liquid injections and QuEChERS sample preparation for baby food and tea
• Columns: TG-624SilMS and GuardGOLD capillaries

Method parameters include optimized temperature programs, collision energies for quantifier and qualifier transitions, and robust calibration across low ppb to ppm levels.

Main Results and Discussion

Ethylene oxide analysis achieved detection limits below 0.002 mg/L with clear separation from acetaldehyde and other co-eluting volatiles. Linearity from 0.002 to 5 mg/L showed deviations within ±13 %. A three-day sequence of 500 injections demonstrated peak area RSDs <10 % without source cleaning, highlighting instrument robustness.

Pesticide recovery in baby food at 0.00005–5 mg/kg ranged from 70–110 % with RSDs <15 %. Multi-residue analysis at 0.5 ppb in tea achieved similar precision, even for late-eluting pyrethroids. NeverVent technology enabled uninterrupted operation during maintenance, maintaining consistent low-level response within two hours after source cleaning.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• Increased uptime: NeverVent source design and automated diagnostics reduce routine downtime.
• Enhanced throughput: XLXR detector extends dynamic range and calibration span, supporting both trace and high-level assays without system changes.
• Regulatory readiness: In-sequence tuning, compliant software drivers and instrument health monitoring simplify method validation and audit trails.
• Versatility: From targeted pesticide panels to untargeted high-resolution screening, the platform adapts to evolving analytical demands.

Future Trends and Opportunities

Emerging developments include integration of AI-driven maintenance prediction, further miniaturization of GC-MS sources, expansion of high-resolution Orbitrap workflows for non-target screening, and enhanced sample preparation automation. The convergence of software analytics and hardware innovations will enable real-time data interpretation and decision support in quality control laboratories.

Conclusion

Thermo Fisher’s new GC-MS instruments deliver significant improvements in sensitivity, selectivity and operational robustness for pesticide and fumigant residue analysis. The combination of NeverVent technology, XLXR detector performance and streamlined software tools meets the needs of high-throughput testing and regulatory compliance, positioning laboratories to address current and future analytical challenges.