Analysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in foods by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

A new, simple and selective method for the analysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in foods by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS) is proposed. Several derivatising procedures based on the formation of an HMF silylated derivative using different reagents were studied. Among the derivatising reagents examined, N,O-bis-trimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) provided the best derivatisation yield. Sample clean-up was also optimised, using either liquid–liquid extraction with dichloromethane or solid-phase extraction (SPE) with several commercially available cartridges, and the best results were obtained using ENV+ cartridges. Quality parameters such as day-to-day and run-to-run precision (RSD < 10%), linearity (between 25 and 700 ng g−1) and detection limit (6 ng g−1) were established. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of HMF content in several Spanish food samples from a local market, such as jam, honey, orange juice and bakery products.