How Scientists Hunt for Pesticides in Your Drinks

Scientists have a new tool to find tiny amounts of pesticides in drinks like juice and wine. They used a special machine that can break down chemicals in three different ways. This helps them spot even the smallest traces of pesticides. The machine can handle 168 types of pesticides using one method and 158 types with another. This is a big deal because it means they can check for a lot of different pesticides at once. They tested it on juice and wine and found about 30 types of pesticides. These include insect killers, plant protectors, and fungus fighters. The scientists also made a clever trick to put more of the drink into the machine. This helps them find even smaller amounts of pesticides. They can now detect pesticides in amounts as tiny as a picogram per milliliter. That's like finding a single grain of sand in a swimming pool! But it's not all perfect. The machine has some limits. It might miss some pesticides or give wrong results. So, scientists need to be careful and double-check their findings. This new method is a big step forward. It helps keep our drinks safe by finding harmful chemicals. But it's not perfect, so scientists need to keep improving it.