Quantification and Confirmation of Zearalenone Using a LC-MS/MS QTRAP System in Multiple Reaction Monitoring and Enhanced Product Ion Scan Modes

A simple, rapid, and efficient liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method, operated in electrospray ionization (ESI) and quadrupole linear ion trap modes, has been developed for the identification and structural characterization of zearalenone (ZEN) in corn oil. Samples (5 g) were extracted with acetonitrile/water (80:20, v/v). After centrifugation and dilution, the extracts were separated on a C18 analytical column by gradient elution (acetonitrile/water) and analyzed by UPLC–MS/MS. The developed multiple reaction monitoring–information-dependent acquisition–enhanced product ion method enabled quantification and confirmation of the analyte in a single run. Enhanced product ion mode was used for qualitative analysis, while multiple reaction monitoring mode was used for quantitative analysis. An in-house library was constructed for identification. Calibration curve showed good linearity with correlation coefficients (r) higher than 0.995. Limit of detection was determined to be below 0.20 μg kg−1 for ZEN. The recovery for ZEN was in the acceptable range of 86.6 to 97.2%. 82.4 % of the samples were found to contain ZEN among the 51 samples.