抄録
Owing to its high sensitivity and selectivity, tandem mass spectrometry coupled with liquid or gas chromatography, i.e., LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS, operating in the selected reaction monitoring mode is currently the most commonly used technique for multiresidue analysis of pesticides and veterinary drugs in foods. However, this technique is limited in the number of compounds that can be monitored simultaneously, and it can monitor only targeted compounds. As an alternative to tandem mass spectrometers, recent advances in high-resolution mass spectrometers, such as time-of-flight (TOF) and Orbitrap mass spectrometers, have enabled their use in the analysis of pesticide and veterinary drug residues. The main advantages of high-resolution mass spectrometry compared with tandem mass spectrometry are as follows: (1) theoretically unlimited number of compounds can be simultaneously analyzed when operated in the full-scan mode, (2) optimization of MS parameters for individual compounds is not required, and (3) the acquired data can be reprocessed retrospectively for compounds that were not anticipated during the initial sample analysis. Although high-resolution mass spectrometers have been mainly used for screening and structural elucidation, recent improvements of mass resolution as well as sensitivity and dynamic range have led to their use in quantitative analysis of trace levels of contaminants in food samples. In this article, the applicability of liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry for quantification, confirmation, and screening of pesticide and veterinary drug residues in foods are discussed.
