Abstract:In order to assay the content of hydroxymethylfurfural derivatives and evaluate the safety of soy sauces, five soy sauces that were collected in the local market were analyzed for the hydroxymethyl furfural derivatives by headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As a result, three kinds of hydroxymethyl furfural derivatives, i.e., furfural, 5- methyl furfural and 2- ethyl -1- hexanol were identified. The linear regressive calibration curve was plotted within the concentration of 3.33~666.67 μg/mL with the LOD of 3.33×10-1 μg/L and the LOQ of 3.33 g/L. The original soy sauce showed that the spiked recovery range was out of the national standard, and whereas the soy sauce after 5-fold dilution with distilled water had the recovery range between 82.23%~115.04%, with the inter-day recovery range between 93.31~111.50%. The inter-day recovery rate was ranged from 93.02% to 115.91%. The inter-day and intra-day precisions were 4.36% and 8.02%, respectively. The furfural content in the five soy sauces was between 70.14~98.75 μg/L, the 2-ethyl-1-hexanol content was between 66.61~79.20 μg/L, and the 5-methyl furfural content was between 221.87~527.40 μg/L. The above results indicated that the content of hydroxymethylfurfural derivatives were significantly different in different soy sauces. However, the daily consumption of soy sauce is safe because the intake of hydroxymethyl furfural derivatives is far below the bottom level to cause safety problems.
