Determination of Pesticides in Red Wine by QuEChERS Extraction, Rapid Mini-Cartridge Cleanup and LC-MS-MS Detection

In this study a novel, simple, rapid and effective method was successfully developed for the determination of pesticide residues in red wine samples. Sample preparation involved extraction of pesticide residues into acetonitrile by QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) and cleanup with a rapid push-through mini-cartridge filter instead of dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE). The red wine extract was cleaned up by passing it through a mini-cartridge containing primary secondary amine sorbent that retains organic acids, sugars and polyphenolic pigments. The cleaned extract was analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). The cleanup procedure was simple and required less than 1 min for each sample. Satisfactory recoveries ranging from 81.6% to 112.2% with relative standard deviations less than 10.8% achieved. The linear dynamic range was 2-400 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9940. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOO) were in the range of 0.01-0.40 and 0.05-1.33 ng/mL, respectively. Six commercially available red wine samples were tested in this study, three of which were found to be positive for the presence of pesticides.