A novel HPLC-PDA method for judging chicken meat infected with Salmonella Enteritidis by simultaneous determination of four key metabolite biomarkers

Detection of foodborne pathogen infection by detecting key metabolic markers is an effective measure to maintain food hygiene and safety. Therefore, the rapid, efficient, sensitive and convenient method of high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array (HPLC-PDA) was established and optimized to determine four key metabolic biomarkers in chicken meat infected with Salmonella Enteritidis, including L-proline (Pro), L-valine (Val), L-methionine (Met), L-leucine (Leu). The limits of detection and quantification (LOD, LOQ) for four target metabolic biomarkers were 4.50-6.5 μg/kg and 25 μg/kg, respectively. The calibration curves show a good linear relationship (R2 ≥ 0.9996). The recoveries were in the range of 80-120%, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were all lower than 6%. The experimental results can be used for rapid detection of chicken meat contaminated by Salmonella Enteritidis to ensure food safety. Furthermore, the HPLC-PDA method is well applied in practice.