Analysis of vanilla flavoured food products using atmospheric - pressure solids analysis probe

Flavour, which entices our sense of taste and smell, is one of the paramount factors contributing to successful food products. Each food product manufacturer creates and maintains its own flavour profile to distinguish its products from competitors (1). Vanilla extract is one of the most widely used flavouring ingredients in food and beverages (2, 3). Authentic vanilla extracts command a premium price because demand exceeds supply. As a result, artificial vanilla flavourings, usually containing synthetically produced vanillin and ethyl vanillin, are often used as substitutes. Since synthetic vanilla costs only a fraction of the price of natural vanilla extracts, they are frequently used to counterfeit pure vanilla extracts. To make adulterated vanilla extracts taste like natural vanilla extracts, coumarin is often added (4, 5). Coumarin, a toxic compound, is banned from all food products sold in the United States. In the EU, the maximum level for coumarin in food and beverages was 2 mg/kg prior to december 2008. At present, depending on the type of product, the maximum level is in the range of 5 to 50 mg/ kg (6, 7). For regulatory compliance, food companies conduct chemical analysis of vanilla extract as well as food and beverage products to ensure product quality and accurate labelling. However, most chemical composition analysis techniques, such as liquid and gas chromatography (LC and GC) methods (8-10), require time-consuming and laborious sample preparation procedures including extraction, fi ltration, dilution, and chromatographic separation. It is therefore desirable to have a screening tool to quickly examine flavour profiles and insure product quality. The Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe (ASAP) is an ambient desorption ionisation technique for mass spectrometric (MS) analysis (11-14). The ionisation mechanism is similar to atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI). The technique depends on both a heated nitrogen desolvation gas to vaporize the sample and a corona discharge for ionisation. It is capable of ionizing a wide range of volatile and semi-volatile analytes. Solid and liquid samples can be directly loaded onto ASAP for MS acquisition without the need for any sample preparation. This paper illustrates the use of ASAP in conjunction with a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer (TQd) to analyze flavour ingredients and screen banned substances in various vanilla extracts, baked goods and coffee products without sample extraction or chromatographic separation.