Quantitation of pesticides in citrus oils and natural product identification

Supported by:

14 September 2020

Watch now

Supported by:

14 September 2020

Watch now

Food analysis presents many difficult challenges for the analytical chemist. An important aspect of ensuring food safety is to measure contaminants that will adversely affect the safety of the product. In addition to testing for known contaminants, there is a need to provide suspect screening as well because it is difficult to predict what chemicals may be present in the samples due to adulteration or the use of other additives that may not be known at the beginning of the analysis.

This webinar presents data that demonstrates the analytical power of a QTOF mass spectrometer. First, a description of a QTOF is given and then data is shown that demonstrates the ability of this technology to generate quantitative data for traditional target compound analysis. This data is followed with a description of suspect screening workflows to identify and confirm chemicals that are not on a target list but are present in the samples and may have an adverse effect on product safety. Finally, these types of instruments generate enormous amounts of data and strategies for data processing are discussed.

Key learning points:

1. Learn the configuration of a QTOF instrument and the advantages of these instruments for food analysis.
2. Learn strategies and workflows for suspect screening and gain an understanding of how to use libraries in the process of finding unknown compounds.
3. Learn how to use software tools to easily and efficiently parse complex data sets into manageable information.

Keynote Speaker:

Craig Butt, Product Application Specialist, SCIEX

Craig M. Butt is Product Application Specialist in the Environmental, Food & Beverage division of SCIEX. While at SCIEX he has developed methods for targeted screening of pesticides in cannabis, non-target screening of pesticides in fruits & vegetables, PFAS in water using high resolution accurate mass spectrometry, and qualitative profiling of natural products. He obtained his Ph.D. in environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto where his thesis research investigated the fate of poly- and perfluorinated organic compounds (PFAS) in biological systems. He was a NSERC post-doctoral research fellow in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, later becoming a research scientist in the department. His research at Duke investigated the disruption of thyroid hormone regulating enzymes by halogenated organic contaminants using in vitro assays, analytical method development of phosphate-based flame retardant (PFR) urinary metabolites; PFR exposure in children and adults; and measuring human PFAS exposure in serum, handwipes and wrist bands.

Craig has 48 peer-reviewed publications, h-index of 30 and has been cited 2379 times.