Efficiency of QuEChERS approach for determining 52 pesticide residues in honey and honey bees

A comparison between QuEChERS and other pesticide extraction procedures for honey and honey bee matrices is discussed. Honey bee matrix was extracted by solvent based procedure whereas solid phase extraction was the protocol for the honey matrix. The citrate buffered QuEChERS method was used for both matrices. The methods were evaluated regarding cost (equipment and reagents), time, accuracy, precision, sensitivity and versatility. The results proved that the QuEChERS protocol was the most efficient method for the extraction of the selected pesticides in both matrices. QuEChERS is the most economical and less time-consuming procedure. SPE and solvent-based extraction procedures show equivalent recoveries to QuEChERS. QuEChERS can be used to extract pesticide residues from both matrices. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).