High-Throughput Methodology for the Determination of Carbamates in Food Supplements by UHPLC-MS/MS

Food supplements are increasingly consumed products that claim to have several benefits for health. In many cases, these supplements contain herbal products and, as a consequence, can be contaminated with pesticides used in crops. This study aimed to use a QuEChERS-based method and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) to determine carbamate residues in different food supplements, all of them containing different herbal products, such as Garcinia cambogia, Cynaras colymus, Equisetum arvense, soy lecithin, Spirulina maxima, Fucus vesiculosus, olive leaf and garlic extract. After testing different sorbents, the combination of PSA/C-18 (75/25) provided the best clean-up effect. The method was validated in terms of linearity, matrix effect, limit of quantification, precision (intra and interday) and trueness. Good linearity (r (2) > 0.99) and precision lower than 16% (expressed as relative standard deviation) were obtained in all cases. Moreover, the recovery in all studied samples was within the acceptable range (71-104%), and limit of quantification was 0.8 A mu g kg(-1). The method was proved to be successful as a quantitative method for carbamate residue analysis in various food supplements, which are known to be complex matrices.