Pesticide application is one of the effective measures to prevent crop diseases and insect pests in agricultural production. However, large-scale use of pesticides also brings food pesticide residues, which brings safety risks to human health. It is of great significance for food safety to clarify the spatial distribution and metabolic transfer pathway of pesticides in food. Traditional detection and analysis methods can only perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of pesticides, unable to directly observe their distribution in food. The emergence of mass spectrometry imaging technology has enabled visual analysis of pesticide residues in food, with advantages such as high sensitivity, high spatial resolution and ease of operation. It has become an important analytical tool for pesticide residue detection. This paper summarized the research progress of mass spectrometry imaging technology for pesticide residue detection in food over the past 5 years, both domestically and internationally. It focused on outlining the principles, characteristics and differences between various types of mass spectrometry imaging techniques. Additionally, it reviewed the application studies of mass spectrometry imaging technology in detecting pesticide residues in food (including different sources of food and different types of pesticides), finally analyzed the deficiencies and challenges of mass spectrometry imaging technology in pesticide residue detection, and proposed the future prospects. This paper aims to provide a reference for the research and innovation development of mass spectrometry imaging technology in pesticide residue detection.

mass spectrometry imaging technology  /  pesticide residue detection  /  visualization