Pesticides (including insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides) are widely used by the horticultural industry to protect their products from insects, pathogens and weeds. Control of such compounds is important for the environment and consumer health, as they can be harmful to people.
Montosa, the company from Malaga, is taking a step forward on Food Security by implementing its own Multi-residue Laboratory that will allow them to control residues regardless of the origin of the fruit and to comply with the quality requirements of the fruit at all destination countries.
In recent years the European Union has increased restrictions on pesticide residues in food by establishing a maximum residue level of pesticides. Along with these measures, the food distribution chains are applying norms that are even more restrictive than the existing regulatory standards. In order to improve safety assurance systems for fruit, according to market requirements and legislation, Montosa is implementing a laboratory to analyze multi-residue in its own facilities.
The laboratory will have the latest technology that will allow the company to have greater control of the fruit and the option to analyze a larger number of samples.
Montosa's laboratory will make use of the latest and most advanced techniques, such as extraction and isolation of substances, subject to analysis of samples, using the technique of QUECCHERS, and subsequent qualitative and quantitative determinations of the same by gas chromatography and high resolution liquid detector of triple quadrupole mass in both cases, to identify and simultaneously quantify a wide range of pesticides.
The gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS) equipment they will use are highly sensitive and provide structural information of the molecules. The high resolution liquid chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometry detector (HPLC-MS) will allow them to detect new pesticides with different polarities and nonvolatile substances with low detection limits.
A highly trained staff, combining both techniques, will permit them to detect a large number of pesticides, with a high sensitivity and specificity, in a large number of samples, ensuring quality and food safety.
Next to the multi-residue laboratory, Montosa has implemented an R & D & I Laboratory for the development of new products. It is a new commitment to innovation, with which Montosa will have greater control of their products to ensure their quality to different destinations.
