Simple and Fast Determination of Acrylamide and Metabolites in Potato Chips and Grilled Asparagus by Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an analytical procedure for the determination of acrylamide in different starchy foods such as potato chips and grilled asparagus. The method is based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QqQ-MS/MS). A solid-liquid extraction procedure, using water as extraction solvent, has been developed followed by a cleanup procedure based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) or dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE). Polymeric cartridges (Oasis HLB) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) were used for potato and asparagus matrices, respectively. The optimized procedures were validated, and limits of detection and quantitation were 4 and 12 mu g/kg for potato chips and 2 and 5 mu g/kg for grilled asparagus, respectively. Recoveries were evaluated, and good values were obtained, ranging from 90 to 117 % for potato chips and from 90 to 116 % for grilled asparagus. The method was applied to real samples, and concentrations ranged from 105 to 860 mu g/kg in potato chips, whereas higher values were detected in grilled asparagus (from 292 to 1469 mu g/kg). Furthermore, single-stage Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry has been used for the putative identification of acrylamide-N-acetyl-S-(2-carbamoylethyl)-l-cysteine (AAMA) in urine.