Gas chromatographic determination of N-nitrosamines, aromatic amines, and melamine in milk and dairy products using an automatic solid-phase extraction system

A reliable analytical method was presented for the simultaneous determination of six N-nitrosamines, nine aromatic amines, and melamine in milk and dairy products using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The sample treatment includes the precipitation of proteins with acetonitrile, centrifugation, solvent changeover by evaporation, and continuous solid-phase extraction for cleanup and preconcentration purposes. Samples (5 g) containing 0.15-500 ng of each amine were analyzed, and low detection limits (15-130 ng/kg) were achieved. Recoveries for milk and dairy products samples spiked with 1, 10, and 50 μg/kg ranged from 92% to 101%, with intraday and interday relative standard deviation values below 7.5%. The method was successfully applied to determine amine residues in several milk types (human breast, cow, and goat) and dairy products.