DETERMINATION OF HETEROCYCLIC AROMATIC-AMINES IN-PROCESS FLAVORS BY AMODIFIED LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD

A liquid chromatographic method for determining heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) was modified so that it can be used to quantitate the fo llowing 5 HAAs in complex process flavors: 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5 -f]quinoline (IQ); 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ); 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx); 2-amino-3,4,8- trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (diMeIQx); and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-p henylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP). By changing the initial extraction procedure, PhIP recovery improved from 35 to 87%. An additional clean up step using ion-exchange solid-phase extraction reduced the levels o f interfering components, thus allowing determination of low levels of the amines. Recoveries from process flavors spiked at 25 ppb averaged 83-90%.