Rapid screening of 28 acidic artificial dyes in fishery products by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry

An analytical method was established for the simultaneous determination of 28 acidic artificial dyes in fishery products by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF MS). The analytes in fishery products were extracted with ethyl alcohol containing 20% (v/v) ammonia water and 10% (v/v) water. Then the extract solution was purified according to amination adsorbent matrix dispersion method. The compounds were separated by an Eclipse Plus-C18 column with acetonitrile and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid-5 mmol/L ammonium acetate solution as the mobile phases, and measured by UPLC-Q-TOF MS with electrospray ionization in negative mode. As a result, the limits of quantification ( LOQs, S/N = 10) of the target compounds were 20-100 µg/kg in fishery products. The 28 analytes behaved linearly in wide-range with the correlation coefficients more than 0. 991 as well as the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the peak areas less than 5.61% (n = 6). The average recoveries of the 28 analytes spiked at three levels were ranged from 70. 24% to 106. 47% with RSDs of 5.62%-9.65% (n = 6). This method can be applied to the analysis of the 28 acidic artificial dyes in fishery products due to its fastness, simplicity and relatively high sensitivity.