Authentication of shrimp muscle in complex foodstuff by in-solution digestion and high-resolution mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for shrimp muscle identification in complex foods is required to safeguard the shrimp-allergic population. This study described a method for authentication of shrimp in complex foodstuffs (fish balls) by liquid chromatography tandem QTOF mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS). The proteins in shrimp muscle were extracted using a Tris–HCl solution and then digested using tryptic protease. The main allergen proteins, tropomyosin (TM) and arginine kinase (AK), were characterized using the ‘bottom up’ MS approach. After analysis of their peptide mass fingerprinting based on the UniProt database, two specific heat-stable peptides, ALSNAEGEVAALNR for TM and VSSTLSSLEGELK for AK, were screened as surrogate (signature) peptides. The detection limit, expressed as shrimp meat per kilogram of food, was 8 g kg⁻¹ (usage of TM) or 5 g kg⁻¹ (usage of AK). The developed method is suitable to screen potential addition of shrimp meat in foodstuffs by detection of allergen proteins.