Detection of histamine in beer by nano extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

In this study, rapid quantitative detection of histamine in beer was achieved by using nano extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nano EESI‐MS) coupling with standard addition method. Based on the MS² experiment, histamine concentrations in three beer samples were determined to be 1.10 ± 0.12 µg/ml, 0.81 ± 0.09 µg/ml and 0.79 ± 0.09 µg/ml. The limit of detection for this method was calculated to be 0.02 µg/ml. These results show that this novel method can be used for direct, rapid and sensitive detection of histamine in beer without any tedious sample pretreatment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.