Organo-Phosphorous Pesticides (OPP) are widely used in agriculture, due to their relatively low cost, broad spectrum of activity, and high impact on insects compared to other pesticides. However, because the OPPs are well known to cause irreversible effects on the nervous system (reduced activity of neurotransmitters), their possible presence as trace residues in food must be strictly monitored. In this respect, one critical application is the control for OPPs in olive oil.

This application describes the analysis of olive oil by the Thermo Scientific TRACE GC Ultra using a Programmable Temperature Vaporizing (PTV) injector and a Flame Photometric Detector featuring extremely high sensitivity and selectivity for phosphorus containing compounds.