Development of a method for the quantification of fish major allergen parvalbumin in food matrix via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with multiple reaction monitoring

The availability of analytical methods for quantification of allergens is crucial for the correct assessment and labeling of products in order to protect allergic consumers. For this purpose, a simple, sensitive and accurate technique was developed based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (LC-MRM-MS/MS). The proposed method uses a simple purification with heat and a completely optimized tryptic digestion. This method has been validated according to the requirements defined by ICH (Q2 [R1]), having a linear range from 0.10 to 1179.36 nM with r > 0.999. The parvalbumin beta in flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) has been quantified at a low level down to 0.10 µg/g with satisfactory precision (RSD < 18.35%) and accuracy (<13.3%). The new approach was successfully applied for the determination of parvalbumin beta in the other food matrices.