Acrylamide is a chemical that has been found in some cooked foods (e.g. fried and baked starchy foods such as potato crisps and chips, roasted coffee, breads, peanuts, and cigarette smoke. In foods acrylamide it thought to be formed as a by-product of the Maillard reaction at high temperatures. In baked and fried foods, it may originate from the reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars (fructose, glucose etc.) or reactive carbonyls at temperatures above 120 oC. Acrylamide is highly toxic, can cause neurotoxicity, genetoxity and reproductive harm, and is a potential human carcinogen. Due to high-water solubility of acrylamide, LC-MS/MS has emerged as the main method for the analysis and favors aqueous extractions from food matrices. However, water will also extract high molecular weight compounds, including proteins, therefore a time-consuming sample clean-up are often also required. Current GC-MS methods mainly involved derivatization via bromination, which is labor intensive. Moreover, breakdown of the brominated acrylamide can occur in the GC injector or column at high temperatures. This work aims to overcome the analytical challenges of current methods applied for acrylamide analysis in food by considering a cost effective, robust approach. A method using silylation of acrylamide with MSTFA (+1% TMCS) as the derivatization reagent for samples extracted with acetonitrile, with detection using single quadrupole GC-MS was developed. Various analytical parameters were considered including selection of ion for increased selectivity (SIM), assessment of chromatographic resolution and peak share, acrylamide linearity, and results repeatability in matrix. Compound linearity was demonstrated over a calibration range of 1 - 1000 ppb (equivalent to 5 – 5000 µg/kg in the prepared sample), with coefficient of determination R2 = 0.9993 and average residual RSD = 4.8%. Good chromatographic resolution with peak asymmetry were observed (tailing factors between 0.94 - 1.03), and peak width (+10%) between 0.063 and 0.066 minutes. Repeatability of results was assessed using spiked ground coffee samples at 1000 µg/kg over n=15 replicate analyses, with acrylamide peak area RSD of 2.9%.

Robust quantification of acrylamide in food using gas chromatography-single quadrupole mass spectrometry

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.