Determination of histamine in canned tuna by molecularly imprinted polymers-surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• A MIPs-PVC-SERS approach was developed for the first time to determine histamine in tuna.
• This approach is high-throughput and can be finished in 20 min, including sample preparation, separation and detection.
• The generation of this MIPs-PVC-SERS approach is simple and cost effective.

We introduce a rapid, cost effective and reliable approach to determine histamine level in canned tuna. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized as artificial antibodies towards histamine by utilizing the interaction between histamine and a functional monomer (methacrylic acid) to impress specific binding sites on polymer particles after polymerization. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was used to immobilize the MIPs, yielding a MIPs-PVC film that functioned as a recognition element to specifically separate histamine from tuna extract. A gold colloid solution served both as an eluting solvent to extract histamine from MIPs-PVC film and furnish a substrate for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection of histamine signals. Principal component analysis together with a partial least square regression (PLSR) model (R2 = 0.947, RMSECV = 3.526) verified the reliability of MIPs-PVC-SERS approach for the detection and spectral analysis of histamine. Linear regression models were also constructed to relate the intensity of different histamine SERS bands with the corresponding spiking levels. One such model (using a band at 1576 cm−1) performed slightly better in predicting histamine content in tuna than the PLSR model. We conclude that our new MIPs-PVC-SERS approach can rapidly and reliably determine histamine at levels from 3 to 90 ppm in canned tuna meat.

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