Development of Isotope Dilution-Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry as a Candidate Reference Method for the Determination of Acrylamide in Potato Chips

An isotope dilution-liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric method was developed as a candidate reference method for the accurate determination of acrylamide in potato chips, starch-rich foodstuff cooked at high temperature. Sample was spiked with C3-acrylamide and then extracted with water. The extract was further cleaned up with an Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and an Oasis mixed-phase cation exchange (MCX) SPE cartridge. The extract was analyzed by using LC/ESI/Tandem MS in positive ion mode. LC with a medium reversed-phase (C4) column was optimized to obtain adequate chromatographic retention and separation of acrylamide. MS was operated to selectively monitor [M+H] ions of the analyte and its isotope analogue at m/z 72 and m/z 75, respectively. Sample was also analyzed by the LC/MS with selectively monitoring the collisionally induced dissociation channels of m/z 72 → m/z 55 and m/z 75 → 58. Compared to the LC/MS chromatograms, the LC/MS/MS chromatograms showed substantially reduced background chemical noises coming from solvent clusters formed during ESI spray processes and interferences from sample matrix. Repeatability and reproducibility studies showed that the LC/MS/MS method is a reliable and reproducible method which can provide a typical method precision of 1.0% while the LC/MS results are influenced by chemical interferences.