title: Assay of Sudan I contamination of foodstuff by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution.
abstract: Food safety represents one of the main issues of national and international agencies appointed to health control. In April 2003, a French agency disclosed that powdered or smashed hot chili pepper imported from India and Pakistan was heavily contaminated with a carcinogenic azo dye known as Sudan I. This paper deals with a modern approach for assaying the content of this colorant in foodstuff down to a limit of a few tens of parts per billion. The isotope dilution method combined with APCI tandem mass spectrometry was used. The internal standard, 1-(d5-phenylazo)-2-naphthalenol, was obtained by simple chemistry, and its structure was determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The mass spectrometric method is more sensitive than the HPLC approach by a factor of 20.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università della Calabria, via P. Bucci, cubo 12/C, I-87030 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Donna
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maiuolo
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mazzotti
authors.forename: Damiano
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sindona
mesh_terms: D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000032:analysis*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination; D007201:Indicator Dilution Techniques; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D007554:Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D009284:Naphthols / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D002273:Carcinogens; D004396:Coloring Agents; D007477:Ions; D007554:Isotopes; D009284:Naphthols; C024336:1-phenylazo-2-naphthol