Asunto(s)
Infecciones por Coronavirus/complicaciones , Aislamiento de Pacientes/psicología , Neumonía Viral/complicaciones , Trastornos Relacionados con Sustancias/terapia , Alcoholismo/complicaciones , Alcoholismo/terapia , COVID-19 , Infecciones por Coronavirus/psicología , Humanos , Pandemias , Neumonía Viral/psicología , Trastornos Relacionados con Sustancias/complicacionesRESUMEN
Caramel colours are used by the food industry in a wide range of foods and beverages. During their manufacturing, low molecular weight compounds such as 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), the structural isomer of 4-MEI, 2-methylimidazole (2-MEI) and 2-acetyl-4-tetrahydroxy-butylimidazole (THI) are generated. The presence of these inevitable by-products of caramel manufacturing can be hazardous to human health. This publication describes an isotope dilution Ultra-High-performance Liquid Chromatography tandem mass spectrometric method (UHPLC-MS/MS) that was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of these impurities in both beverages/liquids and foods. A limit of quantification of 5⯵g/kg was obtained for 4-MEI and THI. The expanded measurement uncertainty (U; kâ¯=â¯2) for these compounds was below 51% in beverages/liquids and below 56% in foods. As higher measurement uncertainties were obtained for 2-MEI, the developed analytical procedure can only be used in a semi-quantitative way for this compound.