In this study, a rapid and reliable method based on ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with Q Exactive HF-X mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QE/MS) was established for the simultaneous quantification and validation of acrylamide, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, and 14 heterocyclic aromatic amines in thermally processed foods. With the optimization of the pretreatment method, all 16 hazardous compounds with different polarities were simultaneously extracted and purified by one-step purification. By studying various acquisition modes in detail, full MS + PRM detection using an electrospray ionization source in the positive mode gives an excellent-shaped chromatographic peak and thereby achieves a better quantitative ability for analytes in the matrix. This method demonstrated good quantification recovery in the range of 68.85-146.42%. The limits of quantification were within the range from 0.1 to 50 ng/mL. With the method proposed, the simultaneous determination of 16 hazardous compounds in different thermally processed foods was successfully applied. The all-fragment-ion approaches at high resolution have the ability to reduce false-positive peak detections arising from peak alignment software in the detection of samples significantly. The proposed isotope dilution UHPLC-QE/MS method was validated and demonstrated to be sensitive, accurate, and precise for the simultaneous quantification of multiple contaminants in one injection.
Keywords: Q Exactive HF-X; UHPLC; hazardous compound; thermally processed foods.