Simultaneous determination of dyes in wines by HPLC coupled to quadrupole orbitrap mass spectrometry

A new method combining the QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method with ultra high performance liquid chromatography and ESI quadrupole Orbitrap high‐resolution MS was developed for the highly accurate and sensitive screening of 69 dyes in wines. Response surface methodology was employed to optimize the QuEChERS sample preparation method for the determination of 69 different analytes in wines for the first time. After optimization, the maximum predicted recovery was 99.48% rate for canacert indigo carmine under the optimized conditions of 10 mL acetonitrile, 1.45 g sodium acetate, 107 mg primary secondary amine, and 96 mg C₁₈. For the matrices studied, the recovery rates of the other 68 compounds ranged from 87.2–107.4%, with coefficient of variation < 6.4%. The mass accuracy typically obtained is routinely better than 1.6 ppm and only needed to be calibrated once a week. The LODs for the analytes are in the range 1–1000 μg/kg. This method has been successfully applied on screening of dyes in commercial wines, and it is very useful for the fast screening of different food additives.