ABSTRACT
Despite their undeniable benefits in crop protection and pest control, pesticides are still considered one of the most dangerous environmental contaminants. These chemicals are potentially transferred to animals via the food chain, leading to their bioaccumulation in food of animal origin, such as milk, meat, fish, eggs, and honey. Since diet is considered as the main exposure route to low doses of pesticides, their residues on food may pose a risk to public health. Even if pesticide residue analysis has been performed since the ‘70s, it remains a challenge because different chemical classes are present at low concentrations in complex matrices. Consequently, there is an increasing demand worldwide for reliable and sensitive analytical methods for multi-residue surveillance of pesticides. Fast, simple, efficient, and cost-effective analytical methods for pesticides are thus needed in food safety monitoring programs to provide accurate results for high sample throughput. This chapter presents a critical review of the most recent analytical methods (2010–2018) for pesticide residue analysis (including practical aspects on sample preparation, analytical techniques and quality control) in food of animal origin. New trends, emerging issues and future perspectives regarding multi-residue pesticide analysis are also discussed.
