As the health effects of environmental contamination are better understood, regulations become more stringent for persistent environmental organic contaminants such as dioxins, phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), and dimethylamine (DMA) in water and in processed or unprocessed foods including fish, oils and vegetables. Environmental agencies and the food processing industry are hard-pressed to detect and measure contaminations in water and food samples. Screening for diverse contaminants and over a large number of samples is cumbersome and error prone. Automation is necessary to efficiently aliquote samples and carry out high throughput repetitive liquid handling protocols.