Investigation of a rapid and sensitive non-aqueous reaction system for the determination of acrylamide in processed foods by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

An innovative, rapid and sensitive non-aqueous reaction system was first established for the determination of acrylamide (AA) by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) after derivatization with xanthydrol. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as an extractant to extract and pre-concentrate AA from food samples before the derivatization reaction. The concentrated AA in DMSO could react with xanthydrol in 1 min at 40 °C under mild reaction conditions, which considerably simplified and stabilized the derivatization reaction process. Under optimal conditions, the method was validated for various food matrices and showed good linearity, precision and trueness. The linear response was in the range of 0.005–4 μg mL−1, with a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.99993. The limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) was 0.7 μg kg−1. The relative standard deviation (RSD) ranged from 2.3% to 6.1% (n = 6) at the concentrations of 25.0, 250 and 1000 μg kg−1. The proposed method enabled the reliable analysis of acrylamide in a variety of processed foods in China, including deep fried and baked foods.