Full-Scan Fragmentation Options for the Detection of Food Contaminants by an Affordable LC-Q-Orbitrap MS

The analysis of food toxicants is a challenging task because of the high number of substances that needs to be analyzed. Pesticides alone account for over 800 analytes and many food commodities may contain other types of toxicants such as mycotoxins, plant toxins and/or veterinary drugs. Such a great number of analytes can be difficult to handle in a single run by targeted, triple quadrupole MS/MS measurements since the instrument will reach its limits with respect to scan speed. This application note explores a possible alternate method, comparing two different scan options of a quadrupole-Orbitrap™ system, and optimizing performance in terms of sensitivity and selectivity.