Chapter 26 - Acrylamide analysis in foods using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with different sample preparation strategies

Abstract

Detection of acrylamide in processed foods has been an intensive area of research after the discovery of acrylamide in thermally processed foods. The methods developed so far are mainly based on mass spectrometry as the determinative technique for better identification of acrylamide, coupled with a chromatographic step either by liquid chromatography or gas chromatography after derivatization, or in a few cases analysis of the compound directly. Various sample preparation procedures have been applied so far due to the diversity of sample matrices. In the analysis of acrylamide, the first step is to obtain a well-represented homogeneous sample. Acrylamide is not distributed homogeneously in foods, but it is concentrated on the surface. Because of its high polarity, water and polar organic solvents are commonly used to extract acrylamide from foods. Extraction conditions appear to be the most critical parameter in sample preparation. Single-stage extraction has been extensively applied to extract acrylamide from solid food matrices using slight differences in solvent type, solvent-to-sample ratio, extraction time, and temperature. Multiple-stage extraction using water or methanol has been shown to improve the extraction yield of acrylamide for different matrices. Most cleanup procedures consist of the combination of several solid-phase extractions to limit matrix effects, and to achieve low limits of detection. Bromination has been the most widely applied derivatization procedure for the determination of acrylamide using gas chromatography techniques. However, care should be taken during bromination because of the handling of hazardous chemicals such as bromine.