About the Chemical Contaminants in Food Community - Pesticides Subgroup!

Current Projects of the Pesticide Subgroup

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Subgroup Chair, Jon Wong
February 3, 2008

Dear Pesticide Subgroup Members:

It's been awhile since the last email but I think everyone is back from the holidays fresh and ready. I hope we are now all busy focused
on our work for a productive 2008! There are three main features I
want to discuss in this discussion:

I) New website
II) Method Needs from responses from the subgroup
III) Other important issues from the subgroup

I. NEW WEBSITE

Thanks to JoMarie, our subgroup now has a website. All future messages will be placed on the website link:

http://www.flworkshop.com/Community/community-1st.html

I will still send an email to you when something new has been placed on the website.

Please take a look at the website. On the right side of the website, notice the 12-step subgroup process to validate new pesticide methods.
We will use this subgroup process as a guide to provide direction. As you can see, we have alot of work ahead of us.

II) METHOD NEEDS FROM RESPONSES FROM THE SUBGROUP

Now on to business. In the last email, I requested each of you to come up with some ideas on methods needs and new ideas in our field. So far, here are some of your comments. These have not been ranked in order of importance, but based on when the response was received.
Please take a look of these requests from your fellow subgroup members.
If you had sent me an email regarding a method need but was not listed below, please send it to me again and I assure you that it will be placed on the website and the next email.

Here are method needs that you have already sent:

1. A multiresidue method that can achieve significantly lower LOQs/LODs for a wide range of products than the currently available methods. With so many companies working on a worldwide basis, this is a significant issue for food export. Countries are setting tolerances that differ from one another, and therefore, a method needs to meet these various levels.

2. Methods and strategies to widen the scope of pesticides that can screen any given sample, with a goal of literally screening several hundred compounds per sample routinely. To accomplish this, we need to focus on method strategies that go beyond just what type of extractions we perform. We need to focus on extractions, instruments and conditions, data handling, and overall cost. It's a world economy and I think that the list of pesticides needs to include North America, EU, South America, Asia, etc. The first step may be to simply identify all of the pesticides of interest and second, determine how they can be extracted and analyzed. We need a playbook that can specify how to analyze any class of pesticide with as many as possible in a single cost effective multi-residue method.

3. Interest in spice and herb matrices, including oleoresins and essential oils. Interest in specific herbs, spices or other seasoning crops. Examples: paprika, chili peppers, black pepper, celery seed, mustard, turmeric, ginger, oregano, etc. Interest in uPLC/MS/MS methods to replace GC methods.

4. Methods needed or specific topics of interest: i-Multi Residue methods to monitoring pesticides used in Europe and asia and ii-specific methods and strategies to analyze present and new groups of pesticides.

5. Validated multiresidue GC and LC methods to screen for pesticide types and groups (organochlorine, organophosphorus, thermally labile
pesticides) for dried botanical dietary supplements and concentrated plant liquid extracts such as ginseng, Gingko biloba, licorice root, Echinachea, saw palmetto berries, tea, ginger, etc.

In order to progress to the next step, we need to specify, expand upon and discuss each of these five method needs, such as:

i) Specify the matrix i.e., fresh produce such as oranges, dried products such as herbals (ginseng), grains (wheat flour), animal feed (alfafa hay), finished products
(fruit juices, sodas, cooked foods, etc.), honey, meat and animal fat, etc.

ii) Specify the pesticide analytes (either by name such as DDT, imidacloprid, methamidophos or by group such as OCs, OPs, carbamates, neonicitinoids, etc.

iii) Specify the tolerance or target levels required or needed for the method

iv) Specify the instrumentation (GC, GC-MS/SIM, GC-MS/MS, LC-PCD-FLD, LC-MS/MS, LC-TOF-MS, etc.) to be used for the method

v) Specify the method type, i.e., is the method needed to screen, quantitate, confirm, or to do all three tasks?

The five method needs may already have the information stated as listed in i)-v). However, we need to make each of the method needs complete before we can proceed.

For those who are interested in one or more of the Method Needs (1-5) listed above, I would appreciate it if you could send me an email on which Method Need(s) is(are) of interest to you and to provide some input using the specifications stated in parts i)-v). This will help in providing specifications and to gain interest from the subgroup. This will help advance to the next steps of prioritizing the Method Needs, reaching consensus, determining performance criteria, and developing validation procedures.

III) OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES FROM THE SUBGROUP

Finally, two other issues came up from subgroup members. If any of you can provide any experience, expertise, or the authority to answer their questions, we would appreciate your input.

1. A listing of pesticides that can be made available, broken down into groups, i.e. GC-able and LC-able, from laboratories of subgroup members?
It would be very useful to know what are all the pesticides that have been actively monitored by the different labs and what types of techniques, LC or GC, are used for screening.

2. A couple that I would like to highlight are what are 1) FDA's position on the newer multiresidue screening methods and 2) the use of matrix matched standards?

We have our work cut out for us. I hope to hear input from all of you soon!

Regards,

Jon

Jon W. Wong

Pesticide SubGroup Members (based on database on 2007-06-26)

Minutes of Meeting: September 17, 2007

Contact Sub Group Chair at:

Wong, Jon [jon.wong@fda.hhs.gov]