Determination of Pesticide Recovery Rates from Fruit and Vegetables Using QuEChERS Extraction and Bead Mill Homogenization on the Bead Ruptor 24

Prior to the QuEChERs extraction of pesticides and analytes, the sample must first be comminuted. The comminuting process can be performed in a number of ways including manual chopping, blending and milling. A more recent approach has been to homogenize the plant material through bead beating. This Application Note evaluates the effectiveness of bead mill homogenization on the Bead Ruptor 24 for multiple pesticide extraction using the QuEChERS AOAC 2007.01 method. The newly designed 50 mL tube carriage for the Bead Ruptor 24 supports simultaneous homogenization of up to three samples in a standard 50 mL polypropylene centrifuge tube and provides sufficient force to homogenize even extremely hard samples such as seeds and roots.