Abstract
A sensitive and simple method for the separation and determination of secondary amines in foods by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector is described.
The secondary amines in a food sample were extracted with 0.05N hydrochloric acid. Amines in the extract were readily converted into the corresponding NBD-amines by reaction with 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzo-oxa-1, 3-diazole (NBD-chloride) under alkaline conditions. Eight amines were separated and determined on a Zorbax SIL column with cyclohexane and ethyl acetate (3:2) as the mobile phase.
The limit of determination was 0.2ppm (dimethylamine, DMA). The recoveries of DMA added to cod roe, fish sausage and coocked herring were 100, 81 and 85%, respectively. It was observed that coocked food samples contained larger amounts of secondary amines than raw samples. White and black pepper contained large amounts of piperidine (510 and 250ppm, respectively).
