Rapid and sensitive detection of pyrimethanil residues on pome fruits by Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering

•A rapid and sensitive method to detect pyrimethanil on apples is presented.•Raman signals of the pesticide are enhanced by drop casting AuNPs on the fruit peel.•120 nm gold nanoparticles provide the best SERS response for this application.•Raman mapping strategy allows to overcome inhomogeneity problems.•Quantitative calibration using Partial Least Squares provides good method stability.