A Total Solution for the Analysis of Melamine and Cyanuric Acid in Pet Food by GC/MS and Aqueous Normal-Phase LC/MS/MS

The Agilent 7890A-5975C GC/MS and 1200SL-6410 Triple Quadrupole LC/MS are used to analyse melamine and cyanuric acid in pet food and related raw material. The GC/MS method employs extraction and then trimethylsilyl derivatisation and is used here for screening. The detection limit is 10 μg/g. The LC/MS/MS method requires only extraction and then a simple isocratic elution on a normal-phase silica column (Rx-Sil) with water and acetonitrile mobile phase containing 5 mM ammonium acetate. The separation of the two compounds takes 5 min. The linear range is from 50 pg/mL to 50 ng/mL for melamine and from 1 ng/mL to 100 ng/mL for cyanuric acid. The LC/MS/MS method is demonstrated by analysis of the target compounds in complex food matrix.