Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8959463 | Food Control | 2019 | 29 Pages |
Abstract
The pesticide fipronil was recently involved in a “poisonous eggs” scandal which resulted in substantial economic losses and public health risks. We report a simple and rapid method which can be implemented to detect fipronil on egg shells and in liquid eggs by Raman spectrometry. Fipronil rapidly crystallizes when solubilized in water-acetone solution (1:6, V/V, acetone/water). This process can be visually observed by naked eyes, suggesting a possible rapid and instrument-free screening action. Then, fipronil crystals were concentrated and recovered on a gold-coated glass slide for further identification and quantification by Raman microscopic analyses. A standard curve was established to quantify fipronil within the range of 1-500â¯mg/L (r2â¯â¥â¯0.997), based on the unique fipronil Raman shift at 2256â¯cmâ1. Acetone based extraction recovered fipronil at three spiked levels of 5, 60 and 100â¯mg/kg on chicken egg shells and in liquid eggs from 59.91% to 81.72% and 85.97% to 152.46%, respectively. The limit of detection translated to the weight of liquid egg (0.32â¯mg/kg) and the surface area of an egg shell (0.065â¯mg/m2). In conclusion, this method has demonstrated a strong capacity for the rapid (<30 min) detection of fipronil on chicken egg shells and in liquid eggs.
Keywords
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Food Science
Authors
Qin Tu, Michael E. Hickey, Tianxi Yang, Siyue Gao, Qingmiao Zhang, Yanqi Qu, Xinyi Du, Jinyi Wang, Lili He,