A new method for the determination of biogenic amines in cheese by LC with evaporative light scattering detector

This paper presents a new LC method with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD), for the separation and determination of the biogenic amines (histamine, spermidine, spermine, tyramine, putrescine and β-phenylethylamine) which are commonly present in cheese, as their presence and relative amounts give useful information about freshness, level of maturing, quality of storage and cheese authentication. The LC–ELSD method is validated by comparison of the results with those obtained through LC–UV determination, based on a pre-column dansyl chloride derivatisation step. The obtained data demonstrate that both methods can be interchangeably used for biogenic amines determination in cheese. The new LC–ELSD method shows good precision and permits to achieve, for standard solutions, limit of detection (LOD) values ranging from 1.4 to 3.6 mg L−1 and limit of quantitation (LOQ) values ranging from 3.6 to 9.3 mg L−1. The whole methodology, comprehensive of the homogenization–extraction process and LC–ELSD analysis, has been applied in the analysis of a typical Calabria (Southern Italy) POD cheese, known as Caciocavallo Silano. The most aboundant amine found was histamine, followed, in decreasing order, by tyramine, spermine, putrescine, β-phenylethylamine and spermidine, for a total amount of 127 mg kg−1. This value does not represent a possible risk for consumer health, according to the toxicity levels reported in literature and regarded as acceptable.