Abstract: A sensitive and selective analytical method based on ultrafast liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of nine preservatives and sweeteners in yellow wine and wine. After the sample was diluted by pure water, the UFLC separation was performed on a Shim-pack XR-ODSII column (100 mm×2.0 mm, 2.2 μm) with a linear gradient elution program of acetonitrile-ammonium acetate(AmAc, 2.5 mmol/L)-trifluoroacetic acid (TFA, 0.01%, v/v) aqueous solution as the mobile phase. Electrospray ionization was applied and operated in the negative multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The results showed that the limits of detection (LODs, S/N>3) for the nine analytes were in the range of 0.03~15.0 μg/L, and the limits of quantitation (LOQs, S/N>10) were in the range of 0.1~50.0 μg/L. The calibration curves showed good linearity for the nine analytes in their detection ranges, and the correlation coefficients (r2) were larger than 0.998. The recoveries were between 96.2% and 100.5% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.6%~5.4% for yellow wine, and between 96.0% and 104.0% with the RSDs of 0.7%~4.8% for wine. Additionally, the mass spectral characterizations of the nine food additives were studied and the fragmentation pathways were speculated. The method is sensitive, reproducible and adaptable to the simultaneous rapid determination of the nine food additives in different yellow wine and wine samples.

Key words: wine, preservative, sweetener, ultrafast liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-MS/MS), yellow wine