Simultaneous determination of taurine, glucuronolactone and glucuronic acid in energy drinks by ultra high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (triple quadrupole)

•Determination of taurine, glucurolactone and glucuronic acid in energy drinks by UHPLC–MS/MS.•Good analytical performance due to the use of a Kinetex Hilic column and a triple quadrupole as mass analyzer.•The level of taurine in the analyzed samples matched with that reported in the labels.

In this work, we present for the first time a rapid and robust UHPLC–MS/MS method for analyzing taurine, GlcLA and GlcA in energy drinks simultaneously and without derivatization. The separation of three analytes was achieved using a Kinetex Hilic analytical column (100 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) and a mobile phase formed by water (A) and acetonitrile (B) both with formic acid 0.1% at a flow rate of 0.8 ml min−1 with isocratic elution in 3.5 min. Calibration curves were calculated using the method of standard addition in a concentration range from 2 to 6 mg/100 ml for taurine (R2 > 0.987), from 0.4 to 1.2 mg/100 ml for GlcLa (R2 > 0.997), and from 0.2 to 0.6 mg/100 ml for GlcA acid (R2 > 0.998). The validated method was applied to the analysis of nine commercial energy drinks. The level of taurine found ranged from 0.01 to 0.45 g/100 ml, and it matched with that reported in the labels of the analyzed energy drink samples.