The development of a sensitive and rapid liquid-phase microextraction method followed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry for the determination of zearalenone residues in beer samples

Abstract

In this work, a new, rapid and sensitive, dispersive suspended microextraction procedure, followed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, was employed for the determination of zearalenone in beer samples. The liquid-phase microextraction method is based on solvent dispersion and magnetic stirring. Validation was carried out according to the Commission Decision 2006/406/EC guidelines. Under the optimum conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) was determined to be 0.44 μg kg⁻¹ and the limit of quantification was calculated to be 1.45 μg kg⁻¹. The relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 5) for inter-day precision was found to be 5.4% and for intra-day precision it was found to be 3.6%. The linearity was obtained using five points in the concentration range of 1.5–45 μg kg⁻¹ and the recovery was >91%. The occurrence of the selected mycotoxin was studied in several beer samples collected from the local market from the region of Epirus.