Analytical determination of pesticide residues and heavy metals in rice using advanced chromatographic techniques: GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS

Abstract

A research was conducted to determine pesticide residues and heavy metals in commercially procured white and organic rice samples using different chromatography instruments. Among the 22 pesticides to be tested for rice export listed by APEDA, 8 of the commonly use pesticides viz. Primifos methyl, Chlorpyrifos, Isoprothiolane, Profenofos, Buprofezin, Triazophos, Tebuconazole were used in this investigation. A good linearity was achieved between the range of 0.005-0.15 mg/liter with a correlation coefficient above R2 0.995. In the present investigation to check the efficiency of method the recovery percent was calculated and it was found to be in range of 70-120% (SANTE/12682/2019). On quantitatively analyzing all the selected pesticides in present investigation according to EU MRLs, using GC-MS/MS only two pesticides Chlorpyrifos and Isoprothiolane (0.004 mg/Kg and 0.005 mg/Kg) in white rice and Chlorpyrifos (0.002 mg/Kg) in organic rice were detected but below the MRL, i.e. within the government prescribed safe range i.e. MRL (Maximum Residue Limit) which is 0.01 mg/Kg, while none of the pesticides were detected when analyzing through LC-MS/MS, in addition to this among all the heavy metals used in the present investigation using ICP-MS none of the metals were detected.. The % RSD was found to be less than 20% for all the targeted pesticides out of eight pesticides. On the basis of obtained results it can be concluded that commercially procured white and organic rice quality is safe for human consumption.