TY - GEN A1 - Mekonnen, Tessema Fenta T1 - Investigation of chlorpyrifos and its transformation products in food samples N2 - Chlorpyrifos (CPF), an anticholinesterase organophosphate insecticide, is commonly used to control pests in agricultural sectors. In recent years, it is one of the most frequently detected residues in fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, pesticides including chlorpyrifos undergo extensive abiotic (industrial processes, waste treatments and photodegradations) and/or biotic (metabolism and microbial activities) processes which lead to transformation products (TPs) with different toxicity. Furthermore, lack of representative standards and complexity of transformation mechanisms make monitoring of TPs in real samples difficult. The aim of this work was to investigate CPF and its TPs in selected food matrices. Representative standards of TPs were synthesized by electrochemistry coupled online to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (EC/LC/MS) that equipped with a follow-through and/or synthesis cell with boron doped diamond working electrode. The TPs were characterized by LC-MS/MS and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and used for real sample investigations. Different fruit and spice samples (fortified by TPs standards and blank) were extracted by dispersive solid phase extraction (dSPE) and analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Recoveries were obtained ranging between 94 – 101% (with matrix effect 85 – 97%). The method limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for CPF were 1.9 and 5.7 µg/kg, respectively. Among investigated samples CPF was detected in fresh lemon, black pepper and fenugreek seed with a content of 104, 31 and 4 µg/kg, respectively. Coriander and cinnamon samples also contained trace levels of CPF (