LC-MS/MS Method for Sensitive Detection and Quantitation of 8 Water-Soluble vitamins in Infant Milk Powder

Water-soluble B vitamins are essential nutrients needed by human body to function properly. Since B vitamins are not produced in adequate amounts in human body, it is important to obtain them from food sources. Low levels of B vitamins in breastfeeding mothers may cause their babies slow growth. Therefore, infant formulas must include proper amounts of nutrients including B vitamins. The Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) and the Food Additive have issued the reference value of infants' daily requirement of B vitamins in infant formula. HPLC and LC/MS/MS methods have used in analysis of B vitamins and additives, either limited to few compounds in HPLC method or required time-consuming sample clean-up method due to the complicated matrix of infant formula.
Here, we present a LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of 8 water-soluble B vitamins in infant formula with 5 isotope labelled internal standards, with a simple sample extraction procedure.