An isocratic LC method for the determination of melamine and its degradation products (ammelide, ammeline, and cyanuric acid), used to increase the apparent protein content of rice protein concentrate, has been developed. Method development involved optimization of different RP columns, aqueous mobile phases, pH, phosphate concentration, and temperature. The optimum separation of these compounds was achieved using a Luna CN column (30 degrees C), 5 mmol L(-1) sodium phosphate (pH 5.0) as mobile phase, 1 mL min(-1) flow-rate, UV absorbance-DAD detection at 220 nm, and resorcine as internal standard; this enabled separation of these compounds with baseline resolution (values in the 2.1-10.1 range) in about 8 min. Prior to HPLC, the developed sample preparation procedure consisted in a leaching process using the above mentioned mobile phase. Method validation was carried out in rice protein concentrates in accordance with the European Commission decision 2002/657/EC criteria. For this purpose, eight mandatory performance characteristics for the conventional validation approach were determined: calibration graphs, extraction efficiencies, decision limits, detection capabilities, precision (repeatability and within-laboratory reproducibility), accuracy, selectivity, and robustness. The extraction efficiencies for these compounds were in the range 99-100% and the within-laboratory reproducibility at 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 detection capabilities concentration levels were smaller than 5, 4, and 3%, respectively. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of other rice protein concentrates and several animal feed samples.

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To improve the analysis of pesticides in complex food matrices with economic importance, alternative chromatographic techniques, such as supercritical fluid chromatography, can be used. Supercritical fluid chromatography has barely been applied for pesticide analysis in food matrices. In this paper, an analytical method using supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to a photodiode array detection has been established for the first time for the quantification of pesticides in papaya and avocado. The extraction of methyl parathion, atrazine, ametryn, carbofuran, and carbaryl was performed through the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe methodology. The method was validated using papaya and avocado samples. For papaya, the correlation coefficient values were higher than 0.99; limits of detection and quantification ranged from 130-380 and 220-640 μg/kg, respectively; recovery values ranged from 72.8-94.6%; precision was lower than 3%. For avocado, limit of detection values were ˂450 μg/kg; precision was lower than 11%; recoveries ranged from 50.0-94.2%. Method feasibility was tested for lime, banana, mango, and melon samples. Our results demonstrate that the proposed method is applicable to methyl parathion, atrazine, ametryn, and carbaryl, toxics pesticides used worldwide. The methodology presented in this work could be applicable to other fruits.