Validation of HPLC analytical method for determination of biogenic amines in agricultural products

An analytical method was validated for the quantitative determination of biogenic amines (BA) in agricultural products. Four agricultural foods, including apple juice, Juk, corn oil and peanut butter, were selected as food matrices based on their water and fat contents (i.e., non-fatty liquid, non-fatty solid, fatty liquid and fatty solid), and the precision, recovery, accuracy, limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were determined to test the validity of an HPLC procedure for the determination of BA, including tryptamine, β-phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine, spermidine and spermine, in each matrix. The LODs and LOQs for the BA were within the range of 0.01-0.18 mg/kg and 0.02-0.31 mg/kg, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of intraday for BA concentrations ranged from 1.86 to 5.95%, whereas, the RSD of interday ranged from 2.08 to 5.96%, respectively. Of the matrices spiked with BA, Juk with putrescine at the lowest concentration (10 mg/kg) exhibited the least recovery rate of 89.63%. Therefore, the validation results fulfill AOAC criteria and recommendations. This method has been applying to analyze BA in agricultural products for a total dietary survey in Korea. [This research was supported by a grant (13162MFDS049) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2013.]