Evaluation of GC-ICP-MS/MS as a New Strategy for Specific Heteroatom Detection of Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Chlorine Determination in Foods

For the first time in the literature, application of a GC-ICP-MS/MS method for the selective and sensitive detection of specific heteroatoms of phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine has been accomplished. As a proof of concept, organophosphorus, organosulfur, and organochlorine pesticides in various food matrices have been studied. For the detection of organophosphorus and organosulfur pesticides, oxygen was used in the collision reaction cell (CRC) to convert P (m/z 31) to PO+ (m/z 47) and S (m/z 32) to SO+ (m/z 48). Similarly, ClH2 + (m/z 37) was monitored after the reaction of Cl (m/z 35) with hydrogen in the CRC for the determination of organochlorine pesticides. Real food samples (baby food purees, fresh vegetables, loose tea) were screened for their pesticide content, following preparation of triplicate extracts using QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe). Excellent linearity with correlation coefficients R ≥ 0.997 was achieved, and the lowest detection limits obtained for the organophosphorus, organosulfur, and organochlorine pesticides were 0.0005, 0.675, and 0.144 μg/kg, respectively.