Determination of melamine residues in milk products by zirconia hollow fiber sorptive microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

News stories about the contamination of milk with melamine in China emerged on Sept 11, 2008, and the situation has since become an international health scare. In this work, a novel analytical method based on enrichment and pretreatment of analytes in the milk sample, hollow fiber sorptive extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry has been developed for the rapid analysis of melamine in the dairy products. In the proposed method, melamine in the fresh milk was extracted by zirconia hollow fiber, enriching on zirconia coating of the hollow fiber, and then analyzed by GC–MS. The method validations including linearity, limit of detection, limit of qualification, recoveries at three different concentrations, precision, and repeatability were investigated. It was found that the proposed method provided linear range from 0.001 to 1000 μg/mL (r² = 0.9997), low detection limit of 0.001 μg/mL, and preferable recoveries at three different concentrations. The obtained results demonstrated that zirconia hollow fiber combined with GC–MS is a simple, rapid and solvent-free method for the analysis of melamine in the dairy products.     

Molecularly imprinted polymer as SPE sorbent for selective extraction of melamine in dairy products

In this paper, a highly selective sample cleanup procedure combining molecular imprinting and solid-phase extraction (MI-SPE) was developed for the isolation of melamine in dairy products. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared using melamine as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linking monomer. The melamine imprinted polymer was used as selective sorbent for the solid-phase extraction of melamine from dairy products. An off-line MI-SPE method followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection for the detection of melamine was also established. The mean recoveries of melamine from ultra-heat treatment (UHT) milk and milk powders were 92.9-98.0% and 91.6-102.8%, respectively. Good linearity was obtained from 0.5 μM to 10 μM (r > 0.999) with a quantitation limit of 0.5 μmol/L (0.06 ppm) which was sufficient to analyse melamine at the maximum level permitted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1 ppm) in dairy products. It was demonstrated that the proposed MI-SPE-HPLC method could be applied to direct determination of melamine in dairy products.     

Rapid determination of melamine in milk and milk powder by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and using cyclodextrin-decorated silver nanoparticles

We have synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) decorated with α-cyclodextrin (CD) by using the traditional silver mirror reaction in the presence of CD. The CD-AgNPs were used as substrate in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for determining melamine. The intensity of the Raman band of melamine at 704 cm^?1 was used to determine melamine in milk and milk powder. The use of CD-AgNPs as the SERS substrate rather than classical silver nanoparticles makes the method more sensitive in giving an enhancement by a factor of up to?~?10⁶ in scattering efficiency. The effects of the volume of solutions (of CD-AgNPs, NaCl, NaOH, melamine) and of mixing time were optimized. The standard addition method was employed for quantitative analysis. The correlation coefficient of the calibration plot is 0.9995, and the limit of detection is 3.0 μg L^?1. The method was successfully applied to the determination of melamine in milk and milk powder, with relative standard deviations of <10 % and recoveries between 89 and 104 %.

Visual detection of melamine in milk products by label-free gold nanoparticles

A simple, rapid, field-portable colorimetric method for the detection of melamine based on melamine-induced color change of label-free gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) was developed in this study. Melamine can induced the aggregation of Au NPs and results in the color change from wine-red to purple, which provided a platform for rapid and field-portable colorimetric detection of melamine. The proposed method can be used to detect melamine in liquid milk and infant formula with a detection limit of 1.0 and 4.2 ppm, respectively, within 30 min by naked eyes observation without the aid of any advanced instrument and the need of any complex pretreatment, and detect as low as 0.15 ppm of melamine in liquid milk and 2.5 ppm of melamine in infant formula with UV-vis-spectroscopy. The proposed method is promising for on-site screening of melamine adulterant in milk products.     

Screening and determination of melamine residues in tissue and body fluid samples

Melamine is a chemical product that was sporadically mixed into animal feeds to boost protein content. Excessive melamine in animal feed can induce renal failure and even death in animals. The residue of melamine in edible animal products also threatens human health. Currently, there is no real-time and high throughput method to detect residual melamine in animal tissues. Successful development of such methods is very important for fast and on-site screening of melamine residue in animal tissues to eliminate the potential threat to human health. Here we demonstrate the detection of residual melamine from swine and chicken tissues and body fluids using indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. A detection sensitivity of 0.5 μg mL⁻¹ and a limit of detection of 0.05 μg mL⁻¹ were achieved with this method. A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was also developed to act as a confirmatory and quantitative procedure for the ELISA results. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) of were 0.01 μg g⁻¹ and 0.005 μg mL⁻¹ for tissues and body fluids, respectively. The two methods showed good agreement (r² > 0.992). The method developed was performed on samples of tissues from chickens fed with melamine-spiked feed.     

Electrochemical sensing of melamine with 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid as recognition element

A new electrochemical sensor for melamine with 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid as the recognition element is established. The results of Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra demonstrate that melamine may interact with 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid to form a complex mainly through the hydrogen-bonding interaction. The electrochemical behavior of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the presence of melamine was studied. The anodic peak currents of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid obtained by differential pulse voltammetry are linear with the logarithm of melamine concentrations in the range from 1.0 × 10⁻⁸ to 5.0 × 10⁻⁶ M with a linear coefficiency of 0.997. The detection limit is 3.0 × 10⁻⁹ M. The proposed method displayed an excellent sensitivity and was successfully applied to the determination of melamine in milk products.     

Hydrogen-bonding recognition-induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles for the determination of the migration of melamine monomers using dynamic light scattering

The migration of melamine monomers from food contact materials has aroused particular attention since the 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal in China. However, the determination of melamine monomer’s migratory quantity (MMMQ) has remained an open question because of the complex sample pretreatment and the low sensitivity. Based on the hydrogen bonding interaction between DNA thymine and melamine, this paper described a simple and rapid method focusing on the measurement of MMMQ from melamine tableware by gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). With the presence of probe DNA (p-DNA), the GNPs were stable in NaCl solution (0.06 M), whereas they became aggregated when the p-DNA hybridized with melamine. The change in the hydrodynamic diameter of GNPs could be detected by DLS technology. Under the optimal conditions, the average diameter increased linearly with the concentration of melamine over the range from 5.0 to 320.0 μg L⁻¹, and showed a detection limit of 2.0 μg  L⁻¹ (3σ/slope). The MMMQ was investigated within a range from 6.00 × 10⁻⁴ to 2.58 × 10⁻¹ mg dm⁻² (n ≥ 3) in four different food simulants at different temperatures and time points. The results suggest that the DLS method has great potential in the analysis of the migration of melamine monomers.     

A gold@silica core–shell nanoparticle-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering biosensor for label-free glucose detection

The gold nanostar@silica core–shell nanoparticles conjugated with glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme molecules have been developed as the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) biosensor for label-free detection of glucose. The surface-immobilized GOx enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of glucose, producing hydrogen peroxide. Under laser excitation, the produced H₂O₂ molecules near the Au nanostar@silica nanoparticles generate a strong SERS signal, which is used to measure the glucose concentration. The SERS signal of nanostar@silica∼GOx nanoparticle-based sensing assay shows the dynamic response to the glucose concentration range from 25 μM to 25 mM in the aqueous solution with the limit of detection of 16 μM. The sensing assay does not show any interference when glucose co-exists with both ascorbic acid and uric acid. The sensor can be applied to a saliva sample.     

Selective melamine detection in multiple sample matrices with a portable Raman instrument using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy-active gold nanoparticles

Melamine adulteration of food and pharmaceutical products is a major concern and there is a growing need to protect the public from exposure to contaminated or adulterated products. One approach to reduce this threat is to develop a portable method for on-site rapid testing. We describe a universal and selective method for the detection of melamine in a variety of solid matrices at the 100–200 μg L⁻¹ level by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with gold nanoparticles. With minimal sample preparation and the use of a portable Raman spectrometer, this work will lead to field-based screening for melamine adulteration. Citrate coated gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were investigated for both colorimetric and Raman-based responses. Several non-hazardous solvents were evaluated in order to develop a melamine extraction procedure safe for field applications. Au NP agglomerates formed by the addition of isopropanol (IPA) prior to sample introduction enhanced the Raman signal for melamine and eliminated matrix interference for substrate formation. The melamine Raman signal resulted in a 10⁵ enhancement through the use of Au NP agglomerates. To our knowledge, we have developed the first portable SERS method using Au NPs to selectively screen for the presence of melamine adulteration in a variety of food and pharmaceutical matrices, including milk powder, infant formula, lactose, povidone, whey protein, wheat bran and wheat gluten.     

Determination of aromatic amines in food products and composite food packaging bags by capillary electrophoresis coupled with transient isotachophoretic stacking

A capillary electrophoretic method was explored to assay aromatic amines in food samples. With an inline-coupled transient isotachophoretic stacking approach, the method has yielded about 200-fold improvement of sensitivity in UV detection of three primary aromatic amines and melamine. By using K⁺ as a leading ion and Tris⁺ as a terminating ion, a plug of 10 cm (equivalent to 0.44 μL) sample solution was allowed to introduce into a 60 cm (50 cm effective) capillary for separation, giving limits of detection down to 2.0 × 10⁻⁸ M. Baseline separation was achieved within 10 min, with relative standard deviation of 0.41–0.75% (intra-day) or 1.2–1.5% (inter-day) for migration time and 3.8–4.3% (intra-day) or 5.2–6.7% (inter-day) for peak area. The method was directly applicable to assaying the melamine in powder milk samples, with recovery in between 92.0% and 107.1%. The method could also be applied to the analysis of trace primary aromatic amines migrating from composite food packaging bags after combination of a 10-fold off-line concentration step, with limit of detection down to less than 1 μg/L. By this method, 4,4′-diaminophenylmethane and 2,4-diaminotoluene were thus found in three types of composite food packaging bags.     

Determination of melamine and related triazine by-products ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid by micellar electrokinetic chromatography

In this study, micellar electrokinetic chromatographic (MEKC) methods were developed for the detection of traces of melamine and its related by-products (ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid). Two on-line sample concentration steps namely reversed electrode polarity stacking mode (REPSM) and cation-selective injection (CSI) were used for improving the detection sensitivity. For REPSM, a borate-NaOH buffer (pH 10, 35 mM) composed of 60 mM SDS and 10% (v/v) methanol, was used as carrier electrolyte, and samples were prepared in an aqueous solution of 10 mM NaOH. In CSI, a phosphate buffer (pH 2, 50 mM) containing 41 mM SDS was used as the carrier electrolyte, and samples were prepared with an aqueous solution of 10 mM NaOH and a phosphate buffer (pH 2.0, 25 mM) in a volume ratio of 1:9. The results indicated that REPSM enhanced all analyte signals except for melamine, which could be concentrated only by the CSI. The detection limit was reduced from 1.7 mg L⁻¹ to 2.8 μg L⁻¹ for melamine by the optimal CSI step, and from 0.23-1.2 mg L⁻¹ to 2.4-5.0 μg L⁻¹ for the other three analytes by the optimal REPSM step. Tableware made of melamine and samples of flour were used as test samples, and the results indicated that the proposed MEKC methods can successfully determine contaminations from melamine. The study also indicated that when the plastic made of melamine was exposed only once to an acidic solution (acetic or phosphoric acid) at 80 °C for 30 min, melamine continuously leached out from the test sample even without any further treatment with an acidic solution.     

Development of nanofibrillated cellulose coated with gold nanoparticles for measurement of melamine by SERS

The objective of this study was to develop nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)-based substrate for rapid detection of melamine in milk by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). NFC were served as a highly porous platform to load with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which can be used as a flexible SERS substrate with nanoscale roughness to generate strong electromagnetic field in SERS measurement. The NFC/AuNP substrate was characterized by UV–Vis spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Milk samples contaminated by different concentrations of melamine were measured by SERS coupled with NFC/AuNP substrate. The spectral data analysis was conducted by multivariate statistical analysis [i.e. partial least squares (PLS)]. Satisfactory PLS result for quantification of melamine in milk was obtained (R = 0.9464). The detection limit for melamine extracted from liquid milk by SERS is 1 ppm, which meets the World Health Organization’s requirement of melamine in liquid milk. These results demonstrate that NFC/AuNP substrate has improved homogeneity and can be used in SERS analysis for food safety applications.     

Pretreatment-free fast ultraviolet detection of melamine in milk products with a disposable microfluidic device

A new method for sensitive and fast screening of melamine (MEL) in milk products was developed with a low-cost disposable microfluidic device coupled with ultraviolet (UV) detection. This method avoided the need of sample pretreatment prior to the separation process, thus was simple and green. Due to the advantages of the device and fracture sampling technique, milk sample could be directly sampled through the fracture to achieve baseline separation from amino acids, and proteins in the sample did not interfere with the detection. Using 20 mM phosphate running buffer (pH 9.0), a sampling time of 3 s at +180 V and a separation voltage of +1800 V (240 V/cm), this method could detect MEL in milk within 75 s. At the detection wavelength of 202 nm, the linear range for MEL was from 1.0 to 100 μg mL⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.23 μg mL⁻¹ (S/N = 3). The novel protocol had been successfully used to screen MEL in milk samples with recovery more than 82%. The environmentally friendly methodology for pretreatment-free sensitive screening of MEL provided promising applications in monitoring the quality of different foods.     

Detection of Melamine in Powdered Milk Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering with No Pretreatment

We detected a trace amount of melamine in powdered milk using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) on gold surfaces at an excitation wavelength of 632.8 nm. A detection limit of ～100 ppm (μg/g) melamine in milk was attained within a few minutes by the gold nanoparticle substrate from chemical reduction; whereas, better sensitivity, as low as ～200 ppb (ng/g), was achieved by the roughened gold substrate. Our method has the advantage of fast and sensitive detection of melamine in powdered milk without pre-treating the samples.     

Electrochemical determination of melamine using oligonucleotides modified gold electrodes

A novel and simple electrochemical method for determination of melamine is developed based on oligonucleotides film modified gold electrodes. The electrochemical probe of ferricyanide was used to investigate the interactions between oligonucleotides and melamine. Results of cyclic voltammetries, differential pulse stripping voltammetries, electrochemical impedance spectrometry and atomic force microscope, proved that melamine might interact with oligonucleotides mainly through electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding interactions. The interactions between oligonucleotides and melamine lead to the increase in the peak currents of ferricyanide, which could be used for electrochemical sensing of melamine. The redox peak currents of ferricyanide were linear with the concentration of melamine in the range from 3.9 × 10⁻⁸ to 3.3 × 10⁻⁶ M with a linear coefficiency of 0.990. The detection limit was 9.6 × 10⁻⁹ M. The proposed electrochemical biosensor is rapid, convenient and low-cost for effective sensing of melamine. Particularly, the proposed method was applied successfully to the determination of melamine in milk products, and the recovery was 95%.     

Melamine detection by mid- and near-infrared (MIR/NIR) spectroscopy: a quick and sensitive method for dairy products analysis including liquid milk, infant formula, and milk powder

Melamine (2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine) is a nitrogen-rich chemical implicated in the pet and human food recalls and in the global food safety scares involving milk products. Due to the serious health concerns associated with melamine consumption and the extensive scope of affected products, rapid and sensitive methods to detect melamine's presence are essential. We propose the use of spectroscopy data-produced by near-infrared (near-IR/NIR) and mid-infrared (mid-IR/MIR) spectroscopies, in particular—for melamine detection in complex dairy matrixes. None of the up-to-date reported IR-based methods for melamine detection has unambiguously shown its wide applicability to different dairy products as well as limit of detection (LOD) below 1 ppm on independent sample set. It was found that infrared spectroscopy is an effective tool to detect melamine in dairy products, such as infant formula, milk powder, or liquid milk. ALOD below 1 ppm (0.76 ± 0.11 ppm) can be reached if a correct spectrum preprocessing (pretreatment) technique and a correct multivariate (MDA) algorithm—partial least squares regression (PLS), polynomial PLS (Poly-PLS), artificial neural network (ANN), support vector regression (SVR), or least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM)—are used for spectrum analysis. The relationship between MIR/NIR spectrum of milk products and melamine content is nonlinear. Thus, nonlinear regression methods are needed to correctly predict the triazine-derivative content of milk products. It can be concluded that mid- and near-infrared spectroscopy can be regarded as a quick, sensitive, robust, and low-cost method for liquid milk, infant formula, and milk powder analysis.     

Direct determination of melamine in dairy products by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with coupled column separation

A coupled capillary column system was developed for the qualitative and quantitative determination of melamine with isotope internal standard in dairy products by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) without derivatization. A 30 m of DB-5ms ((5%-phenyl)-methylpolysiloxane, 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 μm df) coupled with a 1.5 m of Innowax (polyethylene glycol, 0.32 mm i.d., 0.25 μm df) by a quartz capillary column connector was introduced as separation column. Three advantages were discussed for the coupled system. The sample was fortified with a ring-labeled ¹³C₃¹⁵N₃-melamine as an isotope internal standard and extracted by 1% of trichloroacetic acid aqueous solution. 2.2% of lead acetate solution was then added to deposit protein in the sample matrix. After purification by cation exchange cartridge, the sample solution was directly injected and detected by GC/MS. A six-point calibration curve ranging from 0.05 to 2 mg kg⁻¹ of melamine in sample was used to establish instrument response. The recovery was 93.9-102% with relative standard deviation from 3.1 to 8.7% when isotope internal standard used. The calculated method detection limit was 0.01 mg kg⁻¹.     

Rapid detection of melamine with 4-mercaptopyridine-modified gold nanoparticles by surface-enhanced Raman scattering

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) strategy based on 4-mercaptopyridine (MPY)-modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was developed for the rapid and sensitive detection of melamine in milk powder. The SERS measurement of melamine strongly relied on the “hotspot” effect, in which AuNPs immediately aggregated upon the addition of melamine, leading to significantly enhanced Raman intensity of the reporter molecule MPY and a color change for the solution from red to blue-gray. The limit of detection based on a signal to noise of 3 (S/N = 3) was found to be as low as 0.1 ppb of melamine, with an excellent linearity of 0.5–100 ppb, demonstrating a higher sensitivity and a wider quantitation range than direct SERS sensing methods based on enhanced substrate. An impressive specificity for melamine detection over various common metal ions and excipients in dairy products, even at concentrations of 100-fold higher than melamine, was achieved. Good recoveries of 88.5% and 111.7% were obtained from milk samples spiked to 20 and 100 ppb levels, respectively. The proposed method is potentially applicable for the rapid in situ determination of melamine in complex matrices.     

Synthesis of magnetic polyphosphazene-Ag composite particles as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates for the detection of melamine

Magnetic polyphosphazene(MPZS) particles coated by Ag nanoparticles(MPZS-Ag) have been developed as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS) substrates for sensitive detection of melamine in aqueous solutions and milk samples.5,5'-Dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid)(DTNB) was used as model analyte to test the SERS activity of the MPZS-Ag particles.The prepared MPZS-Ag particles possess both magnetic responsiveness and excellent SERS properties.SERS detection of different concentrations of melamine aqueous solutions and spiked milk samples were performed by the MPZS-Ag particles.The limit of detection(LOD) of the melamine in aqueous solutions was 10-7 mol/L(0.0126 mg/L) and 0.6 mg/L in real milk samples using the MPZS-Ag particles as SERS substrates.The LOD of the melamine are much lower than the safety values of Food and Drug Administration and Codex Alimentarius Commission.These results indicate that the MPZS-Ag particles have promising application prospect for SERS analysis in food safety fields.     

Rapid analysis of melamine in infant formula by sweeping-micellar electrokinetic chromatography

In the present study, an analytical method using capillary electrophoresis with on-line preconcentration technique was developed for rapid determination of melamine in infant formula. Both stacking and sweeping preconcentration techniques had been investigated for the comparison of their effectiveness in melamine analysis. The limit of detection of melamine standard was 0.5 ng/mL for the field amplified sample stacking (FASS) technique and 9.2 ng/mL for the sweeping technique. Although the FASS technique provided better concentration efficacy than the sweeping technique, the matrix effect was more profound with the former. Matrix effect was evaluated by comparing the enhancement factor (EF) of melamine standard and post-extraction spiked infant formula solution. The EF was changed from 429.86 ± 9.81 to the level less than 133.31 with significant peak distortion in the FASS system, and it was remained unchanged in the sweeping system. Sweeping-micellar electrokinetic chromatography (sweeping-MEKC) was demonstrated to be most suitable for real sample analysis. Under optimum sweeping-MEKC conditions, melamine content in infant formulas could be determined within 6 min. The developed solid phase extraction (SPE) procedures coupled with the sweeping-MEKC method was subjected to method validation. Run-to-run repeatability (n = 3) and day-to-day reproducibility (n = 3) of peak area were within 3.6% and 4.8% RSD, respectively. The accuracy was tested by spiking 0.5 and 2 μg/mL of melamine standard in the melamine contaminated milk powder provided by the European Commission, and the recoveries were 93.4 ± 0.5% and 98.7 ± 0.4%, respectively. Results of this study show a great potential for the sweeping-MEKC method as a tool for the fast screening of melamine in infant formulas.