Results of three years HRMS targeted screening of monitoring samples with focus on pesticides not included in the quantitative Danish pesticide control

As part of the national and EU multiannual control programme (MACP) the Danish Food Administration (DFA) annually collects and analysis approximately 2000 samples for pesticide residues. The pesticide scope for the quantitative methods employed primarily include pesticides authorized for use in Denmark as well as pesticides included in the MACP. As a supplement to this quantitative control, approximate 100 selected samples are further analysed by targeted screening at the Technical University of Denmark. The techniques used are HRMS LC-QTOF-MS and GC-TOFMS (2016 and 2017) or GC-Orbitrap (2018). The targeted screening scope include more than 200 pesticides for which screening detection limits have been established and are not included in the scope of the quantitative control programme.The results obtained by the targeted screening analysis performed over three years (317 samples) are presented. The samples include primarily fruit and vegetables but also rice and few samples of e.g. honey and wine. The sampling had been performed in accordance with the sampling directive2002/63/EC and were taken as targeted or non-targeted sampling with focus on samples from third countries. Pesticides that are found several times by the screening are considered for inclusion in the quantitative control programme.The number of findings of pesticides included in the screenings scope are few and generally only occurring sporadically. The compounds ametoctradin*, ametryn, amisulbrom, butachlor,etoxazole*, pentachloranilin, penthiopyrad, pyridalyl and spirodiclofen* were each detected in one of the 317 samples. Fluopyram*, methoprene, metrafenone*, and tetrahydrophthalimid (metabolite of captan*/folpet*) were detected in 2-15 of the 317 samples. The pesticides marked by an asterisk (*) are also included in scope list for the EU MACP (Regulation (EU) 2019/533 of 28 March 2019). Etoxazole, fluopyram and metrafenone were included in the Danish quantitative control programme during 2017 or 2018.The overall few findings of the pesticides included in the screening scope compared to the quantitative national programme and the MACP indicate that scope for the latter two are adequate for control of MRL compliance and provide a good foundation for dietary intake estimations. Thus, the effect or benefit of expanding the scope of the quantitative control with the pesticides in the screening scope would be limited.