Multi-residue contaminants and pollutants analysis in saffron spice by stir bar sorptive extraction and gas chromatography–ion trap tandem mass spectrometry

A method for the simultaneous determination of 46 semi-volatile organic contaminants and pollutants in saffron has been developed for the first time using a stir bar sorptive extraction technique and thermal desorption in combination with gas chromatography–ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. The analytical method proposed was easy, rapid and sensitive and showed good linearity, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility over the concentration range tested. Moreover, the correlation coefficients were higher than 0.98 for all target compounds and detection limits were lower than 1 μg/kg except for simazine. The present method was also applied for the analysis of trace contaminants in saffron samples.