U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 close



Research
                Research Home
                            National Programs
                            Research Projects
                            Scientific Manuscripts
                            International Engagement
                            Scientific Software/Models
                            Databases and Datasets
                            Office of Scientific Quality Review
            Media
                News & Features
                            Multimedia
                            Briefing Room
                            Down on the Farm
                            Press Room
                            Science in Your Shopping Cart
                            Scientific Discoveries
                            Tellus
                            Under the Microscope
            About ARS
                About ARS Home
                            Staff Directory
                            Labs and Research Centers (Map)
                            Headquarter Offices
                            Organizational Chart
                            Employee Services (REE Employees Only)
                            Office of Outreach, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity
            Work With Us
                Work With Us Home
                            ARS Vacancies at USAJOBS
                            Careers at ARS Information
                            Scientific Collaborations
                            Extramural Agreements
                            1890 Faculty Research Sabbatical ProgramSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home News & Events News Articles Research News 2003





- ARS News & Events
- AgResearch Magazine
- Image Gallery
- News
- Search News & Events
- Pesticide Drift May Endanger Pollinators
- ARS Seeks a Fire Ant Fix
- Scientific Discoveries 2024
- ARS Featured Photos
- Down on the Farm
- Facebook Live Events
- Food and Nutrition Research Briefs
- News Archive
- Science in Your Shopping Cart
- Scientific Discoveries
- Social Media
- Under the Microscope
- AgResearch magazine
- ARS at Work
- ARS Memorial Lectures
- ARS Science Hall of Fame
- Citrus Disease (Huanglongbing)
- Contact Office of Communications
- Plant Hardiness Zone Map
- Mobile Apps
- Public Affairs Contacts
- Publications and Other Resources
- USDA Blog
- Videos

Archived Page
 This page has been archived and is being provided for reference purposes only. The page is no longer being updated, and therefore, links on the page may be invalid.
 Read the magazine story to find out more.
New Method Speeds Up Pesticide Residue Monitoring
By Jim CoreJuly 2, 2003
A new approach to analyzing diverse pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables makes it easier and less expensive for analytical chemists to do their jobs.
QuEChERS (pronounced catchers), developed by the Agricultural Research Service, stands for "quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe." It's a streamlined approach for extracting pesticide residues from food samples and preparing them for analysis.
Steven J. Lehotay, a research chemist with ARS' Eastern Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor, Pa., developed the QuEChERS method with Michelangelo Anastassiades, a visiting scientist from a government laboratory in Stuttgart, Germany.
Current methods are time-consuming, expensive and labor-intensive. Therefore, monitoring rates are low, and laboratory costs are high.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, more than half of the samples of produce tested in the United States typically do not have measurable residues. Less than one percent of tested samples exceed the maximum amount of a given pesticide or its breakdown products allowed to remain in or on food commodities. Washing, peeling or cooking most produce can help remove most residues.
Using QuEChERS, a single chemist can now prepare a batch of 10 previously chopped samples in about 30 minutes with $1 of materials per sample. This translates to at least 4-fold lower material costs than traditional methods. According to Lehotay, the method also combines different steps, which reduces the chance for errors.
A single, easy-to-clean Teflon tube is the only item to be washed and reused, eliminating all of the glassware used in conventional methods. Less than 10 milliliters of solvent waste is generated, much less than the 75-450 milliliters generated by other methods. One key to the new approach is the development of a rapid procedure, called "dispersive solid-phase extraction," to quickly remove interfering nontarget compounds and residual water.
Read more about this research in the July issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.


Return to top


Research
                            Media
                            About ARS
                            Work With Us


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov