Simple, cost-effective and sensitive liquid chromatography diode array detector method for simultaneous determination of eight sulfonylurea herbicides in soya milk samples

•Sulfonylurea herbicide analysis in soya milk via QuEChERS-HPLC-DAD.•Recovery in the range of 61-108% at three spiking levels of 10, 50 and 100 ng mL−1.•Matrix effect not larger than 20% due to zirconium-based sorbent (Z-Sep) application.•Application to analysis of soya milk samples available to consumers.•Feasibility of the procedure in natural sample analysis confirmed by LC-MS/MS.

In this study authors propose a simple, cost-effective and sensitive liquid chromatography diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method for the simultaneous determination of eight sulfonylurea herbicides (oxasulfuron, metsulfuron-methyl, triasulfuron, rimsulfuron, chlorsulfuron, mesosulfuron-methyl, amidosulfuron and bensulfuron-methyl) in soya milk samples. QuEChERS-based extraction procedure presents good performance for all of the analytes with recoveries in the range of 61-108% and relative standard deviations (RSD%) less than 15%. No significant matrix effect was observed thanks to application of effective zirconium-dioxide based sorbent (Z-Sep). Method LOQs for all investigated analytes were set at satisfactory low value of 10 ng mL−1 of food product. The procedure was evaluated in terms of natural samples analysis. Chlorsulfuron was determined at concentration of 14.2 ng mL−1 of soya milk product, which was qualitatively confirmed via LC coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The most important steps of procedure optimization are presented.