Determination of twelve mycotoxins in red and green Sichuan peppers using QuEChERS method with LC-MS/MS

The detection of mycotoxins in Sichuan peppers is crucial for ensuring food safety. Hence, an efficient detection approach based on the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) method followed by LC–MS/MS (liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry) was established for the analysis of various mycotoxins in dried red and green Sichuan peppers. Samples were extracted with a solution containing 99 % acetonitrile and 1 % formic acid. A new adsorbent, namely, ENVI-Carb, and primary secondary amines were used as purifying agents. The proposed method demonstrated good linearity (R2 ≥ 0.999), satisfactory recovery (77.3 %–109.2 %), and good repeatability (intraday and interday relative standard deviations ≤9.7 %) in dried red and green Sichuan peppers. Its limits of detection in red and green Sichuan peppers were 0.2–0.6 and 0.1–0.7 μg/kg, respectively. The established method can effectively eliminate complex matrix interference and provides an effective approach for the high-throughput detection of mycotoxins in various complex food matrices. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd