QuEChERS based analysis of multiple pesticides and phthalates in packaged food products

[Display omitted] •Pesticides and phthalates analysis in breakfast cereal samples.•QuEChERS protocol coupled to GC–MS/MS.•Method validation with uncertainty determination.•Identification of compounds involved in flavored and unflavored cereals using multivariate approach.•Increased concentration of pesticides in flavored cereals. Pesticides and phthalates are toxic chemical compounds which could be present in our food items through their different usage. Some of these toxic analytes are present in traces and always a challenge to quantify for analytical chemist especially from complex food matrices. A simple, sensitive, fast and robust QuEChERS based method was developed, optimized and validated. The method showed good linearity in the range of 0.30–50.00 ng g−1 with (r2) ≥ 0.9855. The quantification limit was in the range of 0.0983–0.8934 ng g−1 with recovery and precision in the range of 71.1–112.5% and RSD