Determination of a new sweetener advantame in food by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A new ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with triple quadrupole method was developed, and validated for screening and confirmation of the new sweetener advantame in food. The sample was extracted with methanol-water (50:50, v/v), followed by centrifugation. The supernatant was then filtered through a membrane filter. The determinant was performed on Agilent SB-C18 (150 mm×2.1 mm, 5 μm) column with gradient elution. The target compound was carried out by positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) under the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. While the qualitative screening was achieved with retention time and qualitative ion, the confirmation analysis was achieved with peak area and quantitative ion. The results showed that the limit of detection (LOD, S/N ≥ 3) and the limit of quantification (LOQ, S/N ≥ 10)were 0.03 and 0.10 mg/kg, respectively. The average spiked recoveries showed a variation from 80.3 to 98.0% for the three fortification levels. The results showed good linear relationships in the range of 0.01-1.0 mg/L of advantame with correlation coefficients above 0.997. This procedure was noticeably rapid, simple, sensitive, and accurate. Therefore, this method is suitable for batch determination of the new sweetener advantame in beverages, yogurt, and jelly.