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. 2019 Mar 1:1:100009.
doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2019.100009. eCollection 2019 Mar 30.

SWATH-MS screening strategy for the determination of food dyes in spices by UHPLC-HRMS

Aurélie Périat  1 , Stefan Bieri  1 , Nicolas Mottier  1
Affiliations

SWATH-MS screening strategy for the determination of food dyes in spices by UHPLC-HRMS

Aurélie Périat et al. Food Chem X. .

Abstract

A multi-class wide-scope screening method for the detection and identification of artificial colours and illegal dyes in spices was developed for regulatory purposes. The screening was carried out by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated with a quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) with sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment-ion spectra (SWATH) and was validated with forty-one compounds by spiking experiments in curry and paprika extracts. In order to detect and identify the compounds with a high level of confidence, a home-made tandem mass spectrometry (QTOF-MS/MS) database of approximately one hundred illegal dyes and artificial colours was created. The procedure was then used to screen field samples of spices and spice blends purchased from Swiss markets. Sudan IV, Sudan I, bixin (E160b) and Ponceau 4R (E124) were all detected among the eight non-compliant samples.

Keywords: Artificial colours; Food dyes; QTOF; SWATH-MS; Spices; Sudan dyes.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Box plots of the mass error dispersion for curry and paprika extracts. The green and blue lines represent the median value whether in the negative or the positive mode, respectively. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Top: Reprocessing results for Sudan IV in chili peppers, with (A) the chromatogram extracted to the exact mass 381.1710 ± 25 ppm, (B) the isotopic distribution, (C) the deconvoluted MS/MS spectrum (in blue) compared to the library MS/MS spectrum (in grey) and Bottom: the results for bixin in the contaminated crushed chili with (A) the chromatogram extracted to the exact mass 395.2217 ± 25 ppm, (B) the isotopic distribution and (C) the deconvoluted MS/MS spectrum (in blue) compared to the library MS/MS spectrum (in grey). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
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