A Government Perspective on Pesticide Surveillance and Enforcement in Food and the Environment

By attending this presentation, you will learn about:

• The strategies for analyzing broad panels of pesticides with both LC/MS/MS and GC/MS/MS

• The approaches to address matrix interferences and consideration for instruments and methodologies

• Method validation requirements and accreditation criteria from the government perspective

This presentation will review the laboratory perspective on the regulation and surveillance of approximately 270 pesticides and how this testing ties into federal government programs. Resulting methods used by the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Pesticide Residue laboratory show a lower quantitation limit at or below 10 parts per billion in complex matrices using a QuEChERS extraction paired with GC/MS/MS and LC/MS/MS. This work will summarize data found using these methods and compare goals, analysis requirements, and challenges between the USDA Agriculture Monitoring Service Pesticide Data Program and the U.S. EPA Region 5 with respect to pesticide use.

Additionally discussed will be strategies and challenges of using multiresidue methods on mass spectrometry platforms from the ODA including:

• Workflow strategies

• Matrix interferences and cleanup

• Instrumental and methodological considerations, including compatibility of pesticides in these methods

• Method validation requirements and accreditation criteria

Presenter: Deidre E. Damon (Scientist and Mass Spectrometrist, Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Consumer Protection Laboratory)

Deidre Damon has been a scientist and mass spectrometrist for the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Consumer Protection laboratory since 2019. She earned her PhD in analytical chemistry at the Ohio State University, focusing on alternative sampling and ionization sources for mass spectrometry. Since 2021, she has supervised the Pesticide Residue and Industrial Hemp laboratories where she oversees regulatory and surveillance testing of pesticides in environmental and food commodities on behalf of the U.S. EPA, USDA, and FDA for the state of Ohio.