Development of Analytical Methods to Analyze Pesticide Residues

Dear Colleagues,

Plant protection products have been used in agriculture throughout the world since the middle of the 20th century to control pests, diseases and weeds in crops and it is known that the use of pesticides provides unquestionable benefits in increasing agricultural production. However, since pesticide residues can widely dispersed from their application areas, they can reach environment and food chain constituting a potential risk to consumers. In this sense, authorities and agricultural sector try to establish a high level of protection to human, animal health and the environment, preventing the approval of hazardous substances with a major environmental impact, establishing legal directives to control their levels through e.g. the Maximum Residue Levels, and searching on and on for pesticides less persistent and toxic for human consumers.

The analysis of pesticide residues in food and environmental samples has received increasing attention in the last few decades and different techniques are used since pesticides include a variety of compounds with very different physico-chemical characteristics and large differences in polarity, volatility and thermal stability. Analysis of pesticides still remains a challenge due to the low detection levels required by regulatory bodies and the complex nature of the matrices in which the target compounds are present. Therefore, analytical methodologies with efficient sample preparation and very low level detection and identification to provide the sensitivity, selectivity, and specificity needed to meet EU legislation for the analysis of pesticides in environmental and food samples are strongly required.

This special issue aims to attract contributions, original research or review articles, on all aspects related to the optimization and the validation of analytical methods for the determination of pesticides in different matrices such as food or environmental compartments and also to describe the recent advances and future trends and innovations. Studies focused on “green” sample preparation, monitoring and identification of pesticide degradation products by high resolution mass spectrometry are also welcome.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Chemistry.

Dr. Thierry Dagnac
Dr. Pilar Sandín-España
Guest Editors

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