Determination of histamine in fish products by capillary electrophoresis and ion-pair liquid chromatography with diode-array detection

A method for histamine determination in fish and fish products by capillary electrophoresis and ion-pair liquid chromatography has been developed. His tamine was extracted from different fish samples with 10% trichloroacetic a cid, and the filtrate was directly applied to capillary electrophoresis app aratus. A preliminary purification through a solid phases extraction cartri dge (Sep-pak C-18) was necessary for HPLC analysis. Histamine was detected 'on-line' at 210nm by both approaches. HPLC procedure allowed accurate (+/- 2.2%) and repeatable (+/-1.6%) determination of histamine in fish products at appropriate levels (20-100 mg kg(-1)) to meet current regulations. (C) 1 999 Society of Chemical Industry.