A rapid gas chromatographic method for the determination of histamine in fish and fish products

A gas chromatographic (GC) method, which reduced the time for determination of histamine in fish and fish products to less than 20 min, was demonstrated. Contrary to traditional GC method, histamine in sample was initially extracted with alkaline methanol and injected into a GC column (CP-SIL 19CB) for analysis without derivatization. Internal standard used in this protocol was 1,9-nonanediol. Detection limit for histamine by this method was about 5 μg/g. Standard addition test indicated 98–111% (CV: 2.7–7.8%) of recovery for tuna flesh and 99–102% (CV: 2.7–8.9%) for shrimp meat after adding with authentic compound, suggesting that using direct GC analysis for histamine determination was feasible.