Simultaneous determination of nine flavor compounds in pasteurized milk by gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry ( GC-MS/MS) method was established for the simultaneous determination of nine flavor compounds ( hydrocoumarin, vanillin, coumarin, ethyl vanillin, methyl vanillin, 7-methylcoumarin, 7-methyoxycoumarin, 7ethoxy-4-mrthyl coumarin, pyranocoumarin) in pasteurized milk. The samples were extracted with ethanol and subjected to whirlpool oscillation. After centrifugation, the supernatant was filtered through a membrane, and the components were separated on a DB-5MS column. The nine analytes were detected by GC-MS/MS in the multiple reaction monitoring ( MRM) mode and quantified by a matrix-matched external standard method. Good linearities in the range of 1-200 mu g/L were observed for the nine flavor compounds. The linear correlation coefficients (R-2) were greater than 0. 997. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were 0.0020. 1 mu g/kg and 0. 001-2 g/kg, respectively. The average recoveries were 90. 3%-110. 6%. Both the intra-day and inter-day RSDs were less than 10%. The developed method is simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive, and can be used for the simultaneous determination of the nine flavor compounds in pasteurized milk.