Benzimidazole and imidazole fungicide analysis in grape and wine samples using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Abstract

This manuscript reports a quantitative pesticide residue method analysis employing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting carbendazim, imazalil and thiabendazole pesticide residues in vegetable samples. The results have been compared with those obtained from a liquid chromatography system coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (LC-ESI-QqQ-MS). A validation study was undertaken to establish this method's performance characteristics on the 3 pesticide residues in two commodities (table grapes and wine). The carbendazim, imazalil and thiabendazole ELISA showed an IC₅₀ reporting limit ranging from 0.5 to 13.8 µg kg⁻¹. The limit of quantification of the developed assay was 5 µg kg⁻¹ for both grape and wine matrices. The optimised assay was compared with a reference procedure based on liquid chromatography using samples acquired from various supermarkets, and a good correlation between both methods was found.