Residue levels of five grain-storage-use insecticides during the production process of sorghum distilled spirits

•Residue level of five insecticides during distilled spirits production was assessed.•Soaking process obviously reduced dichlorvos residue with 87% decrease.•Fermentation removed pesticide residues by 40–63% due to biological degradation.•Distillation process was proved to be effective for reducing pesticide residues.•The PFs of five insecticides were clarified in the production of distilled spirits. Residue levels of dichlorvos, fenitrothion, pirimiphos-methyl, malathion and deltamethrin during sorghum distilled spirits production were examined. The analytical method for these pesticides in sorghum, fermented sorghum, rice hull and distilled spirits was validated through linearity, matrix effect, accuracy and precision, limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) parameters. The pesticide residue levels before/after each process of soaking, steaming, fermentation, and distillation were determined by gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). Results showed that soaking process could obviously reduce dichlorvos residue with 87% decrease as its high vapor pressure. The steaming process reduced pesticide residues by 42–83% mainly due to evaporation or thermal degradation. Also, the fermentation could remove pesticide residues by 40–63% in favor of biological degradation. Moreover, the distillation process was proved to be effective for decreasing the pesticide residues in distilled spirits with the processing factors lower than other processes for each pesticide.