Determination of Arsenobetaine in Manufactured Seafood Products by Liquid Chromatography, Microwave-assisted Oxidation and Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

A study was carried out to develop and optimize a method for determining arsenobetaine (AB) in seafood products by coupling HPLC, microwave-assisted oxidation and HGAAS. Conditions were established for the extraction and instrumental determination of AB in popular seafood products. The analytical features of the method were as follows: the detection limit was 0.68–27.20 ng g ^-1 As (fresh mass), the relative standard deviation ranged from 0.4 to 6%, and the recovery was 104±5%. The analysis of DORM-1 (Dogfish Muscle, National Research Council of Canada, Certified Reference Material) provided an AB value of 16.5±0.6 µg g ^-1 As (dry mass), in agreement with results obtained by other workers using HPLC–ICP-MS. The proposed procedure was used to analyse canned seafood products purchased at local retail market outlets. The contents of total As represented by AB ranged from 5 to 75%. The lowest percentages of AB corresponded, in general, to the bivalve group.