Abstract
Pests are common problem in cultivated edible mushroom and pesticides are used in their production cycle hence a study was undertaken to standardize a multiresidue method for commonly used pesticides as per previous available literatures and personal interaction with farmers. The effectiveness, reliability and accuracy of the method were assessed through validation parameters such as linearity, LOD, LOQ, precision, accuracy, uncertainty, and matrix effect. The linearity calibration for all the selected pesticides at standard concentrations (0.003, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1 µg mL-1) obtained were ≥0.970 in both LC-MS/MS and GC. The LOD and LOQ values were 0.003 and 0.01 µg g-1, respectively. The recoveries obtained in the spiking level of 0.01-0.1 µg g-1were in the acceptable range (71.69 to 117.90%) with RSD less than 20%. Matrix effect and uncertainty for all target compounds were in the acceptable range. Monitoring of edible button mushroom samples collected from market revealed the presence of cypermethrin residues in four out of 25 fresh button mushroom samples and no detectable residues were found in processed mushroom products tested.