Determination of Organotins in Seafood by Novel Extraction Procedures and High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Simultaneous quantification of tin and lead species in Antarctic krill and fish by interfacing high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry based on strong cation-exchange and Amphion columns

Tin and lead are a global concern considering their species-dependent toxicity, bioavailability and transformation. Simultaneous speciation analysis of tin and lead is challenging for a large food capacity containing unstable species. Herein, we developed two sensitive methods for rapid quantification of tin and lead species in Antarctic seafood by high-performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry based on strong cation-exchange and Amphion columns. Inorganic tin and lead, four organotin and two organolead compounds can be analysed in 16 min on a 10-cm Amphion II column (mobile phase: 4 mM sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate at pH 2.0) with 0.02-0.24 μg L-1 detection limits. The method was applied to Antarctic krill and fish, demonstrating the presence of any tin and lead species down to μg kg-1 level. Overall, the proposed methods are sensitive, efficient and environment-friendly for routine speciation analysis of tin and lead in food samples.

Organotin compounds in seafood by ultrasonic assisted extraction and gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

Although restricting environmental quality values for organotin compounds (OTs) are set by Directive 2013/39/EU of the European Parliament, marine environment remains being affected due to maritime circulation at global scale. Fish and seafood accumulate OTs, making fish and seafood consumption the main source of OTs in humans. Because of the fish and seafood matrices complexity and the required low limits of detection, a robust and fast procedure for the quantification of OTs in fish and seafood, using ultrasound-assisted extraction and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, was validated and applied. Detection (2.7 µg Sn kg-1) and quantification (8.0 µg Sn kg-1) limits, repeatability and intermediate precision (<10%), accuracy by analysing ERM®-CE477 Mussel Tissue and analytical recoveries (65-122%) were assessed. Multivariate analysis shown that the matrix effect for some OTs displayed good negative correlation with the fat and protein content. Health risk assessment of OTs intake revealed no serious risk for human consumption.