RAFA 2009: Agilent Technologies Seminar

EU projects represented at RAFA 2009:

Lunch vendor seminar, November 6, 2009 (12:45–14:00)

Latest Innovations in Food Analysis – Agilent Technical Seminar RAFA 2009

Sponsored by

Determination of Target compounds and Unknown Contaminants in complex matrices with QQQ and TOF analyzers: a comprehensive discussion on practical solutions to every food analyst

Paul Zavitsanos, Food Market Worldwide Manager, Agilent Technologies, USA

The investigation of food samples for pesticides, mycotoxins, allergens, drugs and other contaminants can be broadly classified into two categories: the measurement and confirmation of known or expected target compounds and the identification and estimation of unknown contaminants. Target compound quantitation and confirmation and the identification of unknown contaminants, in either liquid or gas phase have significantly different analytical strategies, objectives and ultimately are ideally addressed by different analyzers.

Triple quadrupole MS instruments are ideal for trace quantitation and confirmation but what happens to the sensitivity and viability of the technique as the number of compounds increases into the hundreds of compound per run? What happens as chromatographic peak widths drop below two seconds width at the base? Is there a point where the inherent scan sensitivity speed of a high resolution (15k resolution) TOF-MS analyzer with a 0.001 m/z extraction window is better suited? Where is the crossover point? In contaminant discovery applications, MS Scan methods are the standard approach. What would the impact of accurate mass high resolution TOF instrument with deconvolution software tuned to find unknown compounds or known and dangerous ones? Are there fundamental differences in instruments designed for LC or GC service? The results of experiments into these questions will be presented and investigated in this presentation.

The impact of innovation in liquid chromatography on food analysis

Pat J. Sandra
Director of the Research Institute of Chromatography, Kortrijk, Belgium

The current trend of LC analyses is biased toward high throughput, high productivity and high resolution. In response to these increasingly demanding requirements, over recent years, innovative technologies and improvements in instrumentation have emerged which are having a significant impact on our daily work.

This contribution will review the features of Ultra High Pressure (UHP) and Elevated Temperature (ET) LC in extending speed, productivity and peak capacity for food analyses. Special emphasis will be given to robustness and the introduction of the principles of green chemistry in state-of-the-art liquid chromatography.

The recent developments also have an important impact on the hyphenation of LC with mass spectrometry. This will be illustrated with the determination of residues and contaminants in food products by UHPLC-QQQ and UHPLC-(Q)-TOF.

Agilent LC/MS and LC/MS/MS Application Kits for Pesticide Residue Analysis

Jerry Zweigenbaum, Senior LC/MS Applications Scientist, Agilent Technologies, USA

Agilent solutions for screening large numbers of pesticides have been developed for either LC/TOF or QTOF and LC/QQQ applications. These included a database of accurate masses for over 1600 pesticides and related compounds and a QQQ MRM database to facilitate customized screening and confirmation. The Personal Compound Database and Library (PCDL) software for pesticide analysis is populated with almost 1600 compounds, their exact masses, formulae, and structures (among other useful information) that represent most pesticides used over the last century. This presentation will describe how the database is used with LC/TOF or QTOF MS for screening targeted and non-targeted pesticides. For the most sensitive targeted pesticide screening the LC/QQQ is needed. The Agilent Application Kit for LC/QQQ with a MRM database of over 600 compounds monitored throughout the world will be discussed. Combined with Agilent’s Dynamic MRM for the QQQ, the database can be used to construct customized multi-residue methods for all the pesticides in the database in food at the lowest possible concentrations. As new compounds emerge or if a lab monitors pesticides not in the MRM database, they can be added. Both databases are customizable to meet the changing monitoring needs of laboratories throughout the world.

High Throughput Target Compound Analysis of Food Contaminants using the 7000A GC Triple Quadrupole

Chris Sandy, Senior GC/MS Applications Chemist, Agilent Technologies, United Kingdom

The GC/MS detection, confirmation and quantitation of trace level agrochemicals in food-stuffs such as fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices and meat products can be impaired by co-extracted matrix components. Matrix components that elute during the chromatographic run can mask the presence of contaminants and interfere with their confirmation / measurement due to co-eluting ions. Furthermore, higher-boiling matrix components can remain on the capillary column between sample analyses.

These components can cause loss of chromatographic peak shape, retention time shifts of target analytes and contamination of the mass spectrometer ion source requiring more frequent maintenance of both the gas chromatograph and the mass spectrometer ion source.

This presentation will show you the robustness of the Agilent 7000A GC-QQQ system when Capillary Flow Technology is used to facilitate capillary column backflush between every sample analysis. Data will be shown from both a vegetable extract and meat fat extract analysed in MS/MS mode that demonstrates both quantitative accuracy and reproducibility for more than 60 agrochemicals spiked into the extract samples at concentration levels below the regulatory reporting level of 10 ppb.