Determination of pesticide residues in edible snails with QuEChERS coupled to GC-MS/MS.

A QuEChERS multi-residue GC-MS/MS method was developed for determining 160 pesticides in fresh edible snails. The method was validated according to the EU guidance SANTE/12682/2019. Twenty-seven different pesticides were quantified in the 824 samples analysed. Of these, 22.09% contained pesticide residues; in one case six different pesticides. The most frequently quantified pesticides were chlorpyrifos (108 samples), cypermethrin (50), difenoconazole (24), oxyfluorfen (13), lambda-cyhalothrin (12), tetraconazole and azoxystrobin (7). Other pesticides were found in <5 samples. Of the samples containing residues, 154 exceeded the EU legal limit. However, the estimated daily intake of pesticide residues showed that snail consumption does not represent appreciable risks to consumer health.