China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of edible mushrooms. Because the production process of edible mushrooms is carried out in a humid and closed environment with invisible light, diseases and insect pests have always been one of the main factors affecting the production and quality of edible mushrooms. Diamide is a novel class of insecticides with unique target site activity ,which exhibits remarkable selectivity and low toxicity to mammals. Up to now, some diamide active ingredients have been registered in different countries for pest control. Meanwhile, cyclaniliprole and tetrachlorantraniliprole are in the process of being registered on a global scale and approved for use in pest control. The maximum residue limits (MRLs) for diamide insecticides (10 μg kg−1) except for tetrachlorantraniliprole in edible mushrooms  were stipulated by European Union (EU). In order to establish the MRLs of tetrachlorantraniliprole in edible mushrooms Xie Hanzhong’s lab from Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, CAAS has conducted the study of developing a rapid, reliable and effective analytical method for detection of diamide insecticides residues

Schematic diagram of the detection process of diamide insecticides

In this study, a new method for simultaneous determination of diamide insecticides (cyantraniliprole, chlorantraniliprole, tetrachlorantraniliprole, cyclaniliprole and flubendiamide) in edible mushrooms was established by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) combined with a modified QuEChERS procedure. The determination of these insecticides could be completed in less than 5 min by this method. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.05–2 μg kg−1 and 5 μg kg−1, respectively. Acceptable recoveries (73.5–110.2%) were acquired for these insecticides with RSDs less than 12.7%. The sensitivity and accuracy of the established method were better or equal to those of the previously reported methods. And this  is the first  report on the application of QuEChERS method to the determination of five diamide insecticides residues in edible mushrooms by HPLC–MS/MS. The results has been published in the Food Chemisry (IF: 6.306).This work was supported by the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (Grant CAAS-ASTIP-2019-ZFRI-10), the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. 1610192020106), and the Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Agro-Products of China (Grant GJFP 2019041).

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http://https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814620313303

 By Tian Fajun (tianfajun@caas.cn)