Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7585506 | Food Chemistry | 2018 | 29 Pages |
Abstract
Caramel colours are used by the food industry in a wide range of foods and beverages. During their manufacturing, low molecular weight compounds such as 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), the structural isomer of 4-MEI, 2-methylimidazole (2-MEI) and 2-acetyl-4-tetrahydroxy-butylimidazole (THI) are generated. The presence of these inevitable by-products of caramel manufacturing can be hazardous to human health. This publication describes an isotope dilution Ultra-High-performance Liquid Chromatography tandem mass spectrometric method (UHPLC-MS/MS) that was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of these impurities in both beverages/liquids and foods. A limit of quantification of 5â¯Î¼g/kg was obtained for 4-MEI and THI. The expanded measurement uncertainty (U; kâ¯=â¯2) for these compounds was below 51% in beverages/liquids and below 56% in foods. As higher measurement uncertainties were obtained for 2-MEI, the developed analytical procedure can only be used in a semi-quantitative way for this compound.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry
Authors
G. Jacobs, S. Voorspoels, P. Vloemans, T. Fierens, M. Van Holderbeke, C. Cornelis, I. Sioen, M. De Maeyer, C. Vinkx, G. Vanermen,