Monitoring of tropane alkaloids is regulated in the European Union in cereal-based foods for infants and young children, tea and herbal infusions. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) developed an improved LC-MS/MS analytical method using a pentafluorophenyl column, validated it and conducted two proficiency tests targeting these food categories. A subset of the data gathered from laboratories that used the JRC method was additionally exploited to derive interlaboratory performance characteristics. The method showed fit-for-purpose figures of merit. The LOQs for atropine and scopolamine were around 0.4 and 1.2 µg/kg in cereal products, and in tea and herbal infusions, respectively. Uncertainties varied from 15 to 25%. The reproducibility varied from 11 to 38% for scopolamine and from 17 to 44% for atropine at levels ranging from 0.18 to 18.8 and 1.2-54.0 µg/kg, respectively. Recoveries ranged from 71 to 96%. These performance parameters render the method a good candidate for standardisation.
Keywords: Atropine; Atropine (PubChem CID: 174174); Cereals; Herbal infusions; Interlaboratory comparison; Reproducibility; Scopolamine; Scopolamine (PubChem CID: 3000322); Tea; Tropane alkaloids.
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