Determination of the potential illegal addition of β-blockers to function foods by QuEChERS sample preparation and UPLC-MS/MS analysis

Abstract

A novel method was established for the determination of 11 β-blockers in sedative functional foods using QuEchERS sample preparation coupled with UPLC-MS/MS. The analytes were extracted twice with acetic acid–acetonitrile–methanol (0.1:3:7, v/v/v), and the extracts were purified with mixed QuEchERS adsorbents. Separation was performed on a C₁₈ column, and detection using electrospray ionisation in positive-ion mode. The linear range for the 11 analytes was from 1 to 500 μg l^–1, and the correlation coefficients were above 0.9990. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.02–0.16 and 0.07–0.54 μg kg^–1, respectively. The average recovery for 11 analytes at the three spiking levels varied from 71.8% to 121.9%, and the relative standard deviation was 2.4–12.6%. The method was applied to the analysis of β-blockers in 22 real samples, but none of the analytes was detected. The proposed method is sensitive, efficient, reliable and applicable to real samples.

Keywords:

• β-blockers
• UPLC-MS/MS
• QuEchERS
• sedative function foods

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Special Fund for Science and Technology Research programme, ‘Detection Technology Research of Illegal Additives and Contaminants in Function Food’ [grant number 2012BAD33B02-03].