Analysis of Coffee for the Presence of Acrylamide by LC-MS/MS

Abstract

A variety of popular instant, ground, and brewed coffees were analyzed using a modified liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method specifically developed for the determination of acrylamide in foods. Coffee test portions were spiked with 13C3-labeled acrylamide as an internal standard prior to their extraction and cleanup. Ground coffees (1 g) and instant coffees (0.5 g) were extracted by shaking with 9 mL of water for 20 min. Brewed coffee test portions (9 mL) were taken through the cleanup procedure without further dilution with extraction solvent. Coffee test portions were cleaned up by passing 1.5 mL first through an Oasis HLB (hydrophilic/lipophilic copolymer sorbent) solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and then a Bond Elut-Accucat (cation and anion exchange sorbent) SPE cartridge. The cleaned up extracts were analyzed by positive ion electrospray LC-MS/MS. The MS/MS data was used to detect, confirm, and quantitate acrylamide. The limit of quantitation of the method was 10 ng/g for ground and instant coffees and 1.0 ng/mL for brewed coffee. The levels of acrylamide ranged from 45 to 374 ng/g in unbrewed coffee grounds, from 172 to 539 ng/g in instant coffee crystals, and from 6 to 16 ng/mL in brewed coffee.

Acrylamide in food products – eating habits and consumer awareness among Medical School students

“…It was found that acrylamide is produced as a result of high temperature processing (from 120 °C). Moreover, it was shown that the duration of keeping food at such temperature might indeed affect the content of this chemical compound [10,11,12].…”

Sensitive isotope dilution liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of acrylamide in chocolate

“…In addition, multiple responses are observed in each of the mass transitions at a different retention time but close to that of acrylamide, which may cause interference. Some previous studies (Andrzejewski et al 2004;Delatour et al 2004) demonstrated the quantitative analysis of acrylamide in coffee and corresponding foods. However, the loss of the analyte was >95% in these matrixes, and a significant ion-suppression effect led to a low response of acrylamide under positive electrospray ionization conditions (Riediker and Stadler 2003).…”

“…The collision energy for each monitored transition was optimized in MRM mode. The transitions monitored according to Andrzejewski et al (2004) for acrylamide were 72 > 72 at 1 eV, 72 > 55 at 6 eV, and 72 > 27 at 15 eV. The transitions monitored for labelled acrylamide were 75 > 75 at 1 eV, 75 > 58 at 6 eV, and 72 > 29 at 15 eV.…”

Determination of acrylamide in coffee and coffee products by GC-MS using an improved SPE clean-up

“…In Netherlands, Boon et al (2005) accounted an AA 51 concentration in coffee in the range 4 -45 µg kg -1 that contributes with 13% of the total 52 AA intake in adults. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported levels of 53 AA in brewed coffee ranging from 6 to 16 µg L -1 (Andrzejewski et al, 2004). 54…”