Quantitation of heterocyclic aromatic amines in ready to eat meatballs by ultra fast liquid chromatography

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) in meatballs ready to eat and sold in restaurants in Turkey were determined. A solid phase extraction method was used to isolate HCAs from meatballs. Various HCAs analysed by ultra fast liquid chromatography (UFLC) were varying levels of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) (up to 1.59 ng/g), 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (IQx) (up to 3.81 ng/g), 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ) (up to 0.66 ng/g), 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) (not detected or not quantified), 2-amino-3,4,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (4,8-DiMeIQx) (not detected or not quantified), 2-amino-3,7,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (7,8-DiMeIQx) (up to 0.43 ng/g), 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b] pyridine (PhIP) (up to 1.93 ng/g), 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (AαC) (up to 0.35 ng/g), and 2-amino-3-methyl-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (MeAαC) (up to 0.43 ng/g) in cooked meatballs which are consumed in Turkey. Overall average of total HCA amount was 5.54 ng/g. The present study is to prove that HCAs can be isolated in a very short time (5 min) by using UFLC.