Microwave-assisted extraction and determination of cyanuric acid residue in infant formula samples by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

In the present work, microwave-assisted extraction method in combining with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) was proposed for the determination of cyanuric acid (CYA) in infant formula samples. The separation was performed on a MERCK ZIC HILIC column (150 × 2.1 mm i.d., 5 μm) with gradient elution of 20 mM ammonium acetate solution – acetonitrile. The method could respond linearly with cyanuric acid at concentrations from 1.0 to 50 ng mL−1 with a quantification limit of 0.25 mg kg−1. The intra- and inter-day precision was less than 4% and the recovery of the assay was in the range of 86.7–93.1%. In the analysis of practical spiked infant formula samples, the new method yielded satisfactory results. Due to its simplicity and accuracy the straightforward method is particularly suitable for routine cyanuric acid detection.