Multi-class food additives determination in food and beverages from the Czech market by UPLC-MS/MS

While the use of food additives is common manufacturing practice, the levels used in food have to be compliant with the prescribed legislation. For fast control of present levels of food additives in products, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with a triple quadrupole linear ion trap (QTRAP) mass analyser was applied to develop a method for the simultaneous determination of 41 frequently added food additives and flavourings, including 16 water-soluble colourants, 14 illegal dyes, 7 sweeteners, 2 preservatives, and 2 purine alkaloids. The method was validated using energy drink, chilli powder, condiment, and jelly sweets as food sample matrices. The average recovery values were in the range of 70‒120%, and the relative standard deviations were less than 10% for the majority of the analytes. The validated method was applied for the analysis of 134 samples from the Czech market.