Abstract

An analytical method was established for the rapid determination of 45 pigments and preservatives in edible ink by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), which provides technical support for the composition analysis and industrial development of edible ink. The samples were easily extracted with 75% aqueous methanol solution and purified with a Captiva EMR-Lipid HF solid-phase extraction cartridge. After filtration through a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, the analytes were determined by UHPLC-MS/MS under multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode in both positive and negative ion modes. Poroshell 120 AQ-C18 was selected as the analytical column, and valve switching timing control was adopted during the gradient elution process. The external standard method was used for quantitative analysis. In the established method, the 45 pigments and preservatives exhibited good linear relationships within the mass concentration range of 0.0002–200.0 μg/mL. The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were 0.0004–8.00 mg/kg and 0.001–20.00 mg/kg, respectively. Using 25% aqueous glycerol solution as the blank matrix, the recoveries of analytes at different spiked levels met the detection requirements. The established method is simple and rapid, and can be applied to the qualitative and quantitative detection of typical pigments and preservatives in edible ink.

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