Multiresidue analysis of pesticides in olive oil by gel permeation chromatography followed by gas chromatography–tandem mass-spectrometric determination

A method for the multiresidue analysis of olive oil samples for 26 pesticides is proposed. Residual pesticides are extracted from oil using an n-hexane/acetonitrile mixture, extracts being cleaned-up by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for analysis by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). Electron ionization and chemical ionization are employed in a single analysis for the determination of pesticides. Pesticide recoveries from virgin and refined olive oil spiked with 10, 100 and 250 μg/kg concentrations of the pesticides ranged from 83.8 to 110.3%. The proposed method features good sensitivity: its limits of quantification are low enough to allow pesticide residues to be determined at concentrations below the maximum residue levels legally accepted. The precision, expressed as relative standard deviation, ranges from 4.93 to 8.11%. Applicability was tested on 40 olive oil samples. Several pesticides were detected in most of the virgin olive oil samples. By contrast, refined olive samples contained few pesticides, and only endosulfan sulphate was detected in all.