Illegal pesticides present potential hazards to farmers, crops, food products, and the environment. The global market for illegal pesticides was estimated at $10B by the Voluntary Initiative, an agriculture and agrochemicals consortium. Developing technical capabilities to distinguish authentic materials from counterfeits could help reduce this illegal trade. A chemical fingerprinting technique was tested for samples of the same pesticide obtained from multiple sources, representing different manufacturers and countries of origin. Following analysis by two-dimensional gas chromatography�time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC�GC-TOFMS), data were evaluated using statistical pattern recognition algorithms to classify each sample according to the detected compounds (e.g., impurities, synthesis byproducts) other than the active ingredient. Samples were classified to the correct sources with accuracies of 100% (dichlorvos or dicrotophos) or 87�97% (chlorpyrifos). These results demonstrate that GC�GC-TOFMS coupled with statistical pattern recognition is effective for chemical fingerprinting and may be used to identify possible counterfeit crop protection products.

Chemical fingerprinting as a technique to detect illegal pesticides

248th National Meeting (2014)

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