A
multicolu
mn solid-phase extraction cleanup for the deter
mination of organophosphorus (OP)
andorganochlorine (OC) pesticides plus PCB congeners in virgin olive oil is presented. The
methodinvolves dissolution of the olive oil in hexane, followed by a cleanup syste
m using a diato
maceousearth colu
mn (Extrelut-QE) with reversed (C
18)
and nor
mal (alu
mina) phase SPE colu
mns.Deter
mination of OPs was by GC-NPD, while the OCs
and PCBs were analyzed using GC-ECD.Recovery assays for OPs varied fro
m 81.7% to 105.3%, for OCs ranged between 74.3%
and 99.4%,while for PCBs were fro
m 60.1% to 119.2%. Quantitation li
mits ranged fro
m 10 to 25
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">g/kg olive oilfor OPs,
and fro
m 1 to 6
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">g/kg olive oil for OCs
and PCBs. In the case of positive sa
mples, theconfir
mation of pesticide identity was perfor
med by ion-trap GC-MS/MS. The applicability of the
method was assayed with 19 virgin olive oil sa
mples collected fro
m different olive
mills of Aragón(Spain). Only one OP pesticide (acephate) was detected in one sa
mple at a concentration of 10
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">g/kg. Organochlorine pesticides were found in 5-47% of sa
mples at very low levels ranging fro
m1.5 to 5.2
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">g/kg. PCBs were found in 20-90% of sa
mples, showing concentrations between 2.3
and17.3
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">g/kg.Keywords: Virgin olive oil; organophosphorus pesticides; organochlorine pesticides; polychlorinatedbiphenyls; capillary gas chro
matography-
mass spectro
metric detection