2007 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) This project entails the collaboration between ARS scientist, Steven Lehotay, Israeli scientist, Aviv Amirav of Tel Aviv University, and Utkur Rasulev of the Arifov Institute of Electronics in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The objectives for the ARS collaborator are as follows: . 1)Rapid, easy, and inexpensive methods will be developed for the analysis of chemical contaminants in food and environmental samples, in particular, the QuEChERS approach developed in the ARS lab for pesticides in fruits and vegetables will be expanded to other food matrices and chemicals of interest in Uzbekistan;. 2)the method will be transferred to the Uzbeki scientists who will be trained to use it in their laboratories;. 3)the use of automated direct sample introduction (DSI) in gas chromatographic / mass spectrometric (GC/MS) analysis of pesticides will be evaluated and optimized, including investigations using in-situ chemical derivatization; and. 4)the speed of the GC-MS analysis will be increased by developing fast-GC/MS methods in combination with QuEChERS and automated DSI for pesticide analysis. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) QuEChERS stands for “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe” and lives up to its name in being the newest generation method for pesticide residue analysis of food matrices. The method takes advantage of state-of-the-art analytical techniques such as GC/MS to ease and speed the sample preparation process without sacrificing quality of the results. The QuEChERS method has been demonstrated to extract hundreds of pesticide residues from a variety of food matrices. This approach will be further investigated for pesticides and commodities of interest to Uzbekistan agriculture, and transferred to laboratories in Uzbekistan charged with their analysis. Other advantageous techniques developed together and separately in the ARS and Tel Aviv laboratories of Lehotay and Amirav will also be further investigated and transferred. In the case of ARS, automated DSI coupled to fast-GC/MS analysis will be further investigated using the same pesticide and commodity pairs used in the QuEChERS studies. The combination of QuEChERS with those automated and fast detection methods will provide Uzbeki scientists with the state-of-the-art capabilities to achieve efficient and effective monitroring of pesticide residues in food and the environment. 3.Progress Report This report serves to document research conducted under a Reimbursable agreement between the U.S.Agency for International Development (USAID)and ARS entitled "New Methods and Instruments for Analysis of Contaminants in Food and the Environment." The purpose of the project involves the development and evaluation of highly advantageous methods and instrumentation for achieving fast, easy, and low-cost analysis of a broad range of agrochemicals and pollutants in food and the environment. The specific research objectives are aimed to improve the analytical chemistry for the monitoring of chemical residues in food, and in particular, to provide expertise, training, and technology transfer to Uzbekistan for their food safety and environmental monitoring programs. The methods and instrumentation being developed, when combined, are designed to provide new and effective ways of ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products and the environment. The analytical approaches and scientific interactions from this project are expected to improve the agricultural and economic development of Uzbekistan. In ARS, we completed interlaboratory validation of the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method for pesticides, which led to the achievement of Official Method status from AOAC International. The method is now also known as AOAC Official Method 2007.01, and this has led to many other laboratories around the world to use the QuEChERS approach developed in ARS. The evaluation of the method for additional matrices, such as olives and honey, has been completed, and modifications of the approach have been shown to be applicable to antibiotics as well as pesticides. To further evaluate the approach, we have obtained all necessary reference standards of the veterinary drugs, arranged student staffing, and optimized detection conditions for the analytes using liquid chromatography / tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS). The student has been trained in residue analysis skills, including LC/MS-MS, and many method development experiments have been performed to optimize conditions for the initial 39 chosen veterinary drugs in milk, liver, and muscle matrices. Very good progress has been made thus far (<30 min analysis times, detection limits <10 ng/g, recoveries >60%, and reproducibilities <15% relative standard deviation for milk). We foresee successful development of a method worthy of full validation and transfer to monitoring laboratories, which will be conducted during Year 2 of the project. The collaborators have stated that the project has been greatly enhanced from the expertise of the ARS researchers in the QuEChERS approach and their experience in the detection of multiple target residues. Progress of this project was monitored by site visits and active participation.