Determination of carnosine in feed and meat by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with integrated pulsed amperometric detection

Carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) is a dipeptide regarded as an important molecular marker of the presence of processed animal proteins including meat and bone meal in animal feed. For its identification and quantification a sensitive and selective method by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography coupled with integrated pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC–IPAD) was developed. The assay is based on isocratic elution with 100 mM NaOH as the mobile phase. Interferences of real matrices were efficiently removed; carnosine could be determined at the concentration ranges 0.1–100 μM with a rather low detection limit of 0.23 ng. Unlike feeds for dogs and cats, no carnosine peak was observed in all examined feeds for ruminants. The good analytical characteristics allowed carnosine determination down to 5 μg/g of feed.