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.