Pesticide Residue Testing

Eurofins Central Analytical Laboratories (ECAL) offers a variety of pesticide screening services that are based on industry or government accepted screens and also tailored to individual customers.

• Pesticide screens using methodology for common agricultural products published in the U.S. FDA Pesticide Analytical Manual, and unpublished FDA methods in the form of Laboratory Information Bulletins (LIB) obtained from established workers, such as Jon Wong, Greg Mercer, and Milton Luke. We have an ongoing dialog with these FDA workers to resolve problems with difficult food matrices.
• Technical information published by the California Department of Food and Agriculture is used for quick screens on routine produce and food commodities.
• European Methods such as S-19 and the European Pharmacopeia.
• Methods for botanicals and botanical extracts based on USP methods with GC-MS or LC-MSMS determination.
• Methods published in the Journal of AOAC International for many of the herbicide classes which are somewhat polar, and / or require LC-MSMS determination.
• AOCS methods for nonpolar pesticides in fats and oils, which we find to be an excellent cleanup method for vegetable oils.
• Japanese regulatory methods for screening produce for pesticides.
• ECAL’s scientists have also developed in-house modifications of published methods for the analysis of • animal-derived or plant-derived products used in food ingredients, nutraceuticals, or pharmaceuticals. These are difficult matrices for which published method frequently do not exist.

Because of this broad experience with various sample types, our chemists can usually develop a custom method for a new product or ingredient without delays. ECAL has an active pesticide inventory of over 500 agricultural chemical compounds and uses a variety of specialized equipment to perform these analyses. We also offer method development services, usually based on an hourly rate. The scope of these projects can range from a simple validation of an existing method for a new chemical or new product, to a full GMP-compliant or ICH method development project. Pricing for these projects are by request.