Molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled to liquid chromatography for determination of Sudan dyes in preserved beancurds

New molecularly imprinted microspheres synthesized by suspension polymerisation using phenylamine and naphthol as mimic template were successfully applied as selective sorbents for the solid-phase extraction used for the simultaneous determination of four Sudan dyes from preserved beancurd products. The obtained imprinted microspheres showed good recognition and selectivity to the four Sudan dyes in aqueous solution and the affinity could be easily controlled by adjusting the property of the solution. Under the selected experimental condition, the recoveries of the Sudan dyes in preserved beancurds at three spiked levels were ranged between 90.2–104.5% with the relative standard deviation of less than 6.8%. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) based on a signal-to-noise of 3 and 10 were in the range of 0.005–0.009 μg g−1 and 0.015–0.030 μg g−1, respectively. Comparing with alumina and C18-based extraction, the selectivity and repeatability of molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) were obviously improved. This method could be potentially applied for the determination of Sudan dyes in complicated food samples.