A target screening method for detection of organic pollutants in fruits and vegetables by atmospheric pressure gas chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry combined with informatics platform

Abstract

This study employed an atmospheric pressure gas chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (APGC-QTOF-MS) combined with UNIFI scientific platform to establish a scientific screening library for the screening of 104 organic contaminants in fruits and vegetables. The developed approach shortened the analysis time in comparison with the traditional gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS). All compounds can be separated by using the three-dimensional (3D) acquisition mode supported by UNIFI platform. The percentage of organic contaminants detected with the tolerance ( ± 5 ppm mass accuracy and ± 0.2 min retention time) was in the range 71.4 ± 8.7%-93.3 ± 1.03% at the 10 μg kg^-1 and 94.3 ± 1.2%-99.0 ± 3.4% at the 50 μg kg^-1. The estimated limit of detection (LODs) of the 104 organic contaminants in different matrixes was between 0.02 and 6.00 μg kg^-1. The scientific screening library and UNIFI informatics platform were successfully applied to monitor the target analytes in fruit and vegetable samples.

Keywords: APGC-QTOF-MS; Organic contaminants; Screening; UNIFI.