Capillary electrophoresis‐mass spectrometry – a fast and reliable tool for the monitoring of milk adulteration

Abstract

The development of a rapid, simple and accurate analytical method aimed at the detection and quantification of bovine milk in either ovine or caprine milk samples by means of CE-MS analyses of whey proteins with high-ionic strength and presence of acidic running buffer is described. The high-ionic strength buffer was used in order to minimize the problems with the adsorption of the proteins onto the fused-silica capillary wall. The acidic running electrolyte, pH 1.9, was used to support the production of positive ions in electrospray. Highly linear dependences of the ratio of the sum of non-bovine beta-lactoglobulins (ovine or caprine) to the total beta-lactoglobulins in milk mixture (bovine plus ovine or bovine plus caprine) vs. the volume percentage of added bovine milk in ovine (or caprine) milk were obtained. This technique allowed the fast and reliable evaluation of milk adulteration. The amount of bovine milk added into the "non-bovine" ones can be well within the concentration range of 5-95%.

High-Throughput Proteomics: A New Tool for Quality and Safety in Fishery Products

“…In a study by Mansor et al (submitted) they were able to use the low molecular weight milk proteome to identify the presence of mastitis through milk and to differentiate between E. coli and S. aureus infections. A similar analysis of whole milk was used for the detection and quantification of bovine milk in either ovine or caprine milk by [32]. This publication highlights one of the difficulties of CE-MS for protein analysis, thus the interaction of the negatively charged capillary wall with the positively charged proteins, responsible of band broadening and decreased resolution.…”

Overview on Untargeted Methods to Combat Food Frauds: A Focus on Fishery Products

“…Mass spectrometry can be employed for the assessment of cheese safety; since during the dairy process microorganisms and mycotoxins can accumulate and affect final cheese quality, the use of HPLC-MS techniques allows the detection and quantification of selected mycotoxins [76]. Moreover, milk proteins constitute the major target for MS-based approaches to assess milk traceability and authenticity [77][78][79][80]. In this regard, a recent work published by Nardiello et al shows potentials of a proteomic workflow based on multienzyme digestion followed by nano-LC-ESI-IT-MS/MS analysis for milk authenticity [81].…”

Recent food safety and food quality applications of CE‐MS

“…In this sense, the tool most frequently used for this analysis of milk mixtures (or adulterate dairy products) is the analysis of whey proteins. Müller et al [76] developed very recently a rapid and simple analytical method with the aim of detecting and quantifying ovine or caprine milk adulteration with bovine milk by means of CZE-ESI-MS analyses of whey proteins (a-lactalbumin and b-lactoglobulin). For this purpose, a high-ionic strength and acidic running buffer (1 M formic acid at pH 1.9) was employed.…”