What we are looking for is a method giving the highest recovery of
analytes and simultaneously the lowest possible LOD. It
turns out that there is no universal detector capable of
determining all classes of pesticides at the same time. In
the case of GC-MS, only 17 different pesticides could be
determined in 240 samples [26]; in 66.7% of samples, no
pesticides were detected, in 25.8%, pesticides were
present at levels below the MRL, but 7.5% of samples
contained pesticides in amounts exceeding their MRLs.
More than 5% of the fruit and vegetable samples
analyzed contained five or more different pesticides. In
sweet peppers and grapes, more than 10 such compounds
were found. In apricots, grapes, tangerines and
oranges, pesticide levels exceeded EU MRLs, and strawberries
contained 14 different pesticides. Around 50% of
fruit and vegetable samples contained no pesticides at
all, 45% contained pesticide residues below the MRL, but
5% above the MRL.