Sulfite Quantification in Foods and Beverages Using Triple Quadrupole LC-MS/MS

User Benefits

- Rapid analysis of sulfites, which are added to various foods and beverages as antioxidants. - Wide quantification range reduces the need for re-analysis of samples with high sulfite content. - Good quantification was achieved with a method based on a new U.S. FDA method (C-004.03).

Introduction

Sulfites are one of the most common food additives, used as antioxidants and bleaching agents in a variety of foods. Sulfites are added to a wide range of products, including dried fruits and vegetables, frozen shrimp, juices, and wine. Although they are very useful food additives, ingestion of products containing sulfites is known to cause allergy-like reactions in some cases. Therefore, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requests the labeling of foods containing more than 10 mg/kg of sulfites and have also published an analytical method for quantifying sulfites. We have developed a quantitative analysis method for sulfites in food and beverages with a short analytical time using a UHPLC-based LC-MS/MS with reference to this new FDA method. In this method, unstable free sulfite was detected as hydroxymethylsulfonate (HMS) converted with 0.2% formaldehyde solution. The quantitative analysis was performed with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer LCMS- 8050 equipped with a Nexera^TM UHPLC. For dried fruits (raisins, mangoes), red wine, and white wine, good recovery results were obtained at 10 mg/kg or lower, meeting the level required for labeling in most countries.

January 26, 2023 GMT