Simultaneous determination of 9 heterocyclic aromatic amines in pork products by liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are potent mutagens that formed at high temperature in cooked, protein-rich food. Owing to their frequent intake, an accurate method is essential to access human health risk of HAAs exposure through detecting these compounds in various heat-treated meat products. In this study, a liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed to perform the determination of 9 mutagenic heterocyclic amines (HAAs) in meat samples with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Ultrasound assisted extraction and diatomaceous earth was employed to extract HAAs from food samples, and the analytes were purified and enriched using tandem solid phase extraction, with propyl sulfonic acid coupled to a C18 cartridge. Two parameters, extraction time and eluent, were carefully optimized to improve the extraction and purification efficiency. The LC separation was carried out using a Zorbax SB-C18 (3.5 mu m particle size, 2.1x150 mm i.d.) column and optimized some parameters, such as pH, concentration and volume. Under the optimal experimental conditions, recoveries ranged from 52.97% to 97.11% with good quality parameters: limit of detection values between 0.02 and 0.24 ng mL(-1), linearity (R-2 > 0.998), and run-to-run and day-to-day precisions lower than 9.81% achieved. To evaluate the performance of the method in high throughput analysis of complex meat samples, the LC-MS/MS method was applied to the analysis of HAAs in three food samples, and the results demonstrated that the method can be used for the trace determination of HAAs in pork samples.