Combination of Standard Addition and Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry for the Accurate Determination of Melamine and Cyanuric Acid in Infant Formula
Vasilisa Pedan,
Rudolf Koehling,
Lukas Drexel,
Kathrin Breitruck,
Alexander Rueck,
Sascha Rohn,
Olaf Rienitz,
Axel Pramann,
Tim Seidel,
Eric Allenspach,
Markus Obkircher
Affiliations
Vasilisa Pedan
Sigma-Aldrich Production GmbH (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA), Industriestrasse 25, 9471 Buchs, SG, Switzerland
Rudolf Koehling
Sigma-Aldrich Production GmbH (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA), Industriestrasse 25, 9471 Buchs, SG, Switzerland
Lukas Drexel
Sigma-Aldrich Production GmbH (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA), Industriestrasse 25, 9471 Buchs, SG, Switzerland
Kathrin Breitruck
Sigma-Aldrich Production GmbH (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA), Industriestrasse 25, 9471 Buchs, SG, Switzerland
Alexander Rueck
Sigma-Aldrich Production GmbH (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA), Industriestrasse 25, 9471 Buchs, SG, Switzerland
Sascha Rohn
Institute of Food Technology and Food Chemistry, Department of Food Chemistry and Analysis, Technische Universität Berlin, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, Germany
In the melamine scandals of the early 2000s, different companies of the dairy industry cheated their products by applying chemical substances to feign a higher content of nitrogen. However, this had a severe toxic impact on the kidney health of consumers. As a result, tremendous effort was put into the prevention of further harm to the public. In the present study, a fast–screening method for the determination of melamine and cyanuric acid in infant formula was developed. While a 1D–LC approach is faster and easier to set up, a 2D–LC approach allows for a more accurate result with better selectivity and sensitivity. For both instrumental approaches, the signal ratio of the isotopologues was crucial and had a dominant effect on the results and the measurement uncertainty. For this reason, the different contributions to the measurement uncertainty were determined experimentally using Matched Standard Addition–IDMS and compared to the Exact Matching Double IDMS.