Ultrasound-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction for the determination of carbamates in wines by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

• An UHPLC–MS/MS method is proposed for determination of 25 carbamates in different wines.
• In order to obtain clean extracts, a new sample treatment based on UASEME has been developed.
• LOQs are below maximum residue levels allowed by EU in the case of grape wines.
• The proposed method could be a good alternative for multi-carbamate determination in wine samples.

A new sensitive multiresidue method based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) has been developed for the detection, confirmation and quantification of twenty five carbamates in wine samples. The separation was achieved in 5.5 min, using a Zorbax Eclipse plus RRHD C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm), with a mobile phase of water and methanol, both of them with 0.01% formic acid. The analytes were detected in positive mode with multiple reaction monitoring mode. Ultrasound-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction (UASEME), using a low-density extraction solvent has been optimized for the satisfactory extraction of carbamates and clean-up of extracts. The matrix effect was studied, showing that the proposed procedure provides very clean extracts. Under optimum conditions, recoveries for fortified wine samples ranged from 74 to 102%, with relative standard deviations lower than 6%. Limits of quantification ranged from 0.15 to 0.92 μg l−1, showing the high sensitivity of this fast and simple method and its compliance with current requirements.