The QuEChERSER Mega-Method Addresses Global Challenges in Chemical Analysis for Food Safety

Description:
Introduced in 2020, the “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe, efficient, and robust” (QuEChERSER) mega-method has exceptionally wide analytical scope for routine monitoring in many applications, particularly for chemical residue analysis of foods. QuEChERSER improves upon QuEChERS in many respects, including: 1) it covers a broader scope of polar and nonpolar analytes in a wider range of fatty and nonfatty sample types; 2) it yields higher recoveries by using a larger solvent/sample ratio for extraction and greater elution volume for micro-SPE cleanup; 3) it provides better cleanup for GC-amenable analytes via automated micro-SPE and precipitation-based solvent-exchange for LC-amenable analytes (which also improves peak shapes for early eluters); 4) it takes advantage of automation in GC to increase precision and sample throughput; 5) it reduces test portion sizes while maintaining representativeness of the original bulk sample; 6) it increases ruggedness of analyses via dual column switching and back-flushing in LC and low-pressure GC using 0.53 mm i.d. analytical columns; and 7) data processing and reporting are streamlined via summation function peak integration and automatic quantidentification. The QuEChERSER approach and its advantages over QuEChERS will be reviewed and presented to aid widespread adoption by monitoring laboratories.

Speaker: Steven Lehotay - USDA Agricultural Research Service
Steven J. Lehotay is a Lead Scientist with USDA ARS at the Eastern Regional Research Center. Since 1992, his scientific investigations and method development research have involved improvement in the analysis of pesticides, veterinary drugs, and other contaminants in food and environmental samples. His research has addressed all aspects of the analytical process using many types of analytical techniques applied in novel and useful ways. Lehotay has been honored with many awards, and the Stanford c-score index places him among the top 0.14% of published analytical chemists.