Determination of 7 food additives in prepared pork dishes by gel permeation chromatography cleanup coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

ObjectiveA method was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven food additives in prepared pork dishes using gel permeation chromatography cleanup coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.MethodsSamples were extracted using ultrasound-assisted extraction with acetonitrile containing 0.2% formic acid. The extracts were purified by gel permeation chromatography to remove interfering substances. Chromatographic separation was performed using an HSS T3 column （2.1 mm×100 mm， 1.8 µm）. The mobile phase consisted of methanol （A） and an aqueous solution of 0.01% formic acid containing 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate （B）， using gradient elution. Detection was performed using tandem mass spectrometry in multi-reaction monitoring mode. Quantification was carried out using the blank matrix matching external standard method.ResultsThe seven food additives showed good linearity over the concentration range of 4.00-400.00 µg/kg， with correlation coefficient （r） greater than 0.998. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.50-2.00 µg/kg and 2.00-4.00 µg/kg， respectively. Recovery experiments were conducted at three concentration levels （low， medium， and high） in braised pork， preserved mustard greens braised pork and pork meatballs. The recovery rates ranged from 73.2% to 103.4%， and the relative standard deviations were 0.54%-9.3%.ConclusionsThe method exhibits excellent sensitivity， high and stable recovery rate， efficient purification， and good repeatability， thus providing a reliable solution for qualitative and quantitative detection of food additives in prepared pork dishes.