Qualitative screening of 52 illegally adulterated weight-losing compounds in foods by ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

ObjectiveAn analytical method was developed for the qualitative screening of 52 illegally adulterated weight-losing compounds in foods by ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.MethodsThe samples were extracted by methanol. Waters CORTECS T3 column （100 mm×2.1 mm， 2.7 μm） was used with acetonitrile -0.1% formic acid aqueous solution as mobile phases by gradient elution. The compounds were detected by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and Q-TOF-MS detector in positive and negative ion mode. A standard spectrum library was established by reference standards， and the qualitative analysis was finished by the comparison of the retention time， parent ion and fragment ion accurate molecular mass of each compound in the sample and the library.ResultsThe method was specific without interference of blank matrix， and repeatable in sextuplicate. The detection limits of 52 compounds in 5 matrix were 1‒100 mg‧kg-1. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of actual samples，and 16 compounds were checked out in 246 samples.ConclusionThe method is accurate， specific and sensitive， which can be used to combat the illegal adulteration behavior effectively.

Keywords

• ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry
• illegal adulteration
• weight-losing
• food
• qualitative screening