Evaluation of inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry for interference-free determination of metalloids in complex food

Abstract

An analytical method for determination of B, Si, As, Se and Sb in complex food samples was established by using inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS). The performance of ICP-MS/MS using oxygen into a third generation octopole reaction system (ORS3) and MS/MS mode, and shift mass, was evaluated to eleminate spectral interferences. The limits of detection were 0.094 μg L −1 , 0.13 μg L −1 , 0.025 μg L −1 , 0.013 μg L −1 and 0.014 μg L −1 for B, Si, As, Se and Sb, respectively, with a linear range between 0.5 μg L −1 and 500 μg L −1 . The linear correlation coefficients were 0.9998. Quantitative addition and recovery experiments in real food sample at three concentration levels were carried out to evaluate the accuracy of the method. Quantitative recoveries for B, Si, As, Se and Sb were all in the range of 90.0%–111.5%. The standard material for biological component analysis of spirulina (GBW10025) was determined by using this method, and the results were within the range of the standard uncertainty values. These results show that ICP-MS/MS is a powerful tool for food safety to analyze B, Si, As, Se and Sb simultaneously and interference-freely in complex food samples.