Development of a quantitative method for determination of acrylamide in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars using isotope dilution liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

An improved method has been developed for the determination of acrylamide in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars, a particular class of foodstuffs which represent an important source of nutrition for young infants and babies. This method uses isotope dilution liquid chromatography coupled to a tandem mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization and is significantly more sensitive than previous published methods with a limit of quantification estimated at 1 μg kg−1. The new method offers effective sample preparation procedures including defatting with petroleum ether, extraction with aqueous solution of sodium chloride, further liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate and clean-up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with HLB 200 mg cartridges. The analytical method was well validated and good results were obtained with respect to repeatability (RSD < 5%) and recovery (86-97%) which fulfilled the requirements defined by European Union (EU) legislation. The acrylamide level in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars were 3.01-9.06 μg kg−1 and 6.80-124.93 μg kg−1, respectively. Especially, this new method is successfully applied to the trace quantification of acrylamide in infant/baby foods, the content of which is less than 10 μg kg−1.