| Popis: |
Pesticides are required to protect crops and provide the quantity and quality offood demanded by today's society. However, potential pesticide residue contamination ofboth food and animal feed is ofcritical concern to the food industry, and the public at large. Among the 366 pesticides that were detectable by methods used in the 1999 FDA Regulatory Monitoring Program, 90 pesticides were actually found in foods for human consumption and animal feeds. Unfortunately, rapid, chemical analysis for all of the pesticide residues is unavailable, and only a very small fraction of foods and animal feeds can be inspected. Consequently, as much as 1 % of food brought to market may contain pesticide residues exceeding FDA guidelines. In an effort to address this need, we have been developing sample vials internally coated with a surface-enhanced Raman (SER) active sol-gel material capable ofdetecting pesticides at and below regulated concentrations. The SER active material consists of a metal-doped sol-gel that provides not only a million fold increase in sensitivity but also reproducible measurements. The porous silica network offers a unique environment for stabilizing SER active metal particles and the high surface area increases the interaction between the analyte and metal particles. A sample solution is simply poured into the coated glass vial, placed in the Raman instrument, and measured. Here the potential for developing a rapid multi-residue analyzer employing the sol-gel sample vials will be presented. |
