Determination of Acrylamide in Commercial Baby Foods by LC-QqQ-MS/MS: a Simple Method for Routine Analyses

Abstract

A liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the analysis of acrylamide in baby foods. Sample preparation involves a simple acidi ed aqueous acetonitrile extraction (acetonitrile:water:formic acid, 69/30/1, v/v/v) in combination with dispersive solid phase extraction (d-SPE) using alumina as sorbent. Su cient linearity (range 20-250 µg kg − 1 ) in matrixmatched and solvent calibrations, were obtained. The recovery rates for acrylamide ranged from 100 to 108% with coe cients of variation below 10%, under repeatability and reproducibility conditions (withinlaboratory). The obtained limit of quanti cation (20 µg kg − 1 ) is in accordance with the value set by the European Union (EU) for the method of acrylamide analysis in baby foods. The tness for purpose of the developed method was demonstrated by analyzing 50 ready-to-eat baby foods available in the Brazilian market. Acrylamide was detected in 13% of samples composed mainly of fruits, whereas it was detected in approximately 37% of baby food composed of meat and/or vegetables. Furthermore, in 2 samples, the detected levels are above the maximum reference value established by the EU (40 µg kg − 1 ). The study demonstrates that this method can be used for acrylamide detection in routine analysis.