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Changes in Technical Innovation and Customer Expectations Associated with the Use of LC-MS to Solve Challenges Encountered whilst Ensuring Food and Environmental Safety
Oral Presentation
Prepared by S. Hird
Food and Environment Research Agency, Sand Hutton, York, North Yorkshire, YO41 1LZ
Contact Information: simon.hird@fera.gsi.gov.uk; 190-446-2567
ABSTRACT
Pesticides and veterinary medicines are widely used to combat diseases and pests that adversely affect the production of vegetable and animal foodstuffs. Residues of those compounds can sometimes find their way to the human consumers via food, drinking water or contamination of the environment. The European Union (EU has defined statutory limits for such residues in an attempt to regulate the presence of such contaminants in the environment and food chain.
Residue testing supports the enforcement of legislation, to ensure trading compliance and to conduct surveillance in environmental samples and dietary components for assessment of consumer risk and compliance with good agricultural practice. In the UK pesticide residues are monitored by a variety of competent authorities. The Chemical Residues Directorate are responsible for managing the surveillance of a range of foodstuffs each year to check compliance with approvals and that the concentrations of residues do not exceed MRLs. Pesticide residues in drinking water are monitored by Water Supply Companies who report findings to the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The law essentially requires supplies to be free of residues. Pesticide residues in rivers, lakes and groundwater are monitored by the Environment Agency (or equivalent). MRLs, known as Environmental Quality Standards, have been set for a number of pesticides.
Residue testing historically relied on analytical strategies based on the combination of a variety of specific screening and confirmatory methods typically based on the use of GC-MS. With the exception of niche areas such as testing for antimicrobial activity in animal tissues, current approaches are dominated by multi-residue methods with generic extraction, probably no or very limited cleanup, followed by determination using GC-MS and LC-MS techniques. Such methods are fast, sensitive, informative and greatly reduce costs especially in terms of $/analyte. Today we are confident that we can successfully detect, quantify and identity almost any type of regulated residue at the level of interest in a wide range of foodstuffs, animal tissues or environmental samples using high throughput laboratory-based systems. However, the use of “cocktails” of drugs to promote growth in animals re-enforces the need for even greater sensitivity for targeted analyses. In addition, developments in both food and environmental testing have switched to searching for the unlikely and the unexpected including residues of pharmaceuticals. Non-targeted approaches are employed to capture more information on the composition of the sample (extract) or to compare samples and the identification of any unknown compounds that are detected constitutes a considerable challenge. In addition, attempts have been made to utilise rapid, direct analyses that either avoid the need for any chromatography or exclude the need for any extraction.
This presentation explores the analytical transformations that have taken place during the previous decade, the drivers for change (and for maintaining the status quo) and the resulting shift in customer expectations.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by S. Hird
Food and Environment Research Agency, Sand Hutton, York, North Yorkshire, YO41 1LZ
Contact Information: simon.hird@fera.gsi.gov.uk; 190-446-2567
ABSTRACT
Pesticides and veterinary medicines are widely used to combat diseases and pests that adversely affect the production of vegetable and animal foodstuffs. Residues of those compounds can sometimes find their way to the human consumers via food, drinking water or contamination of the environment. The European Union (EU has defined statutory limits for such residues in an attempt to regulate the presence of such contaminants in the environment and food chain.
Residue testing supports the enforcement of legislation, to ensure trading compliance and to conduct surveillance in environmental samples and dietary components for assessment of consumer risk and compliance with good agricultural practice. In the UK pesticide residues are monitored by a variety of competent authorities. The Chemical Residues Directorate are responsible for managing the surveillance of a range of foodstuffs each year to check compliance with approvals and that the concentrations of residues do not exceed MRLs. Pesticide residues in drinking water are monitored by Water Supply Companies who report findings to the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The law essentially requires supplies to be free of residues. Pesticide residues in rivers, lakes and groundwater are monitored by the Environment Agency (or equivalent). MRLs, known as Environmental Quality Standards, have been set for a number of pesticides.
Residue testing historically relied on analytical strategies based on the combination of a variety of specific screening and confirmatory methods typically based on the use of GC-MS. With the exception of niche areas such as testing for antimicrobial activity in animal tissues, current approaches are dominated by multi-residue methods with generic extraction, probably no or very limited cleanup, followed by determination using GC-MS and LC-MS techniques. Such methods are fast, sensitive, informative and greatly reduce costs especially in terms of $/analyte. Today we are confident that we can successfully detect, quantify and identity almost any type of regulated residue at the level of interest in a wide range of foodstuffs, animal tissues or environmental samples using high throughput laboratory-based systems. However, the use of “cocktails” of drugs to promote growth in animals re-enforces the need for even greater sensitivity for targeted analyses. In addition, developments in both food and environmental testing have switched to searching for the unlikely and the unexpected including residues of pharmaceuticals. Non-targeted approaches are employed to capture more information on the composition of the sample (extract) or to compare samples and the identification of any unknown compounds that are detected constitutes a considerable challenge. In addition, attempts have been made to utilise rapid, direct analyses that either avoid the need for any chromatography or exclude the need for any extraction.
This presentation explores the analytical transformations that have taken place during the previous decade, the drivers for change (and for maintaining the status quo) and the resulting shift in customer expectations.