Ensuring Consumer Safety with Certified Reference Materials for Pesticide Testing

The testing of pesticide impurities in various matrices like food, cannabis, soil and water is growing, driven worldwide by increasing regulation to ensure consumers safety. Therefore, the access to well characterized reference materials for a precise and accurate quantitation of these compounds has become an increasing need in the market. These reference materials should be characterized and prepared according to ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 17034. In order to achieve certification according to this double accreditation at the highest metrological level, different methods need to be successfully established at the reference material provider.

The customer has the choice of two different formats – neat materials or ready-to-use solutions, which both have their advantages. The different concepts and the overall certification workflow will be presented including several examples. For the development of neat compounds that can be supplied in larger amounts, quantitative NMR (qNMR) is the application of choice since it offers direct traceability to the SI unit through primary standards from NMIs and often results in small uncertainties. On the other hand, pesticide solutions or mixtures offer an easier application in the laboratories of the user. For this purpose, a completely new approach was introduced that combines qNMR together with Isotope Dilution MS (IDMS) to offer these materials in solution and still assuring homogeneity and stability of the materials throughout the entire shelf life of the product.

To demonstrate the advantages and additional value of using Certified Reference Materials in a neat format or as mixtures in testing applications, several examples will be showcased.

For more information, please contact us at webinar@avantorsciences.com