Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

J Food Sci 1988 Nov;53(6):1696-8

N-Nitrosamine Analysis in Beer Using Thermal Desorption Injection Coupled with GC-TEA

Billedeau SM, Miller BJ, Thompson HC Jr

A fast and sensitive method is described for determining a mixture of volatile N-nitrosamines in beer and other malt products. It consists of direct extraction of the sample with dichloromethane, volume reduction, cleanup by trapping volatiles onto Tenax-TA, and thermal desorption injection into a capillary gas chromatograph-thermal energy analyzer. Average recovery of N-nitrosodimethylamine added to beer ranged from 70 to 81%. N-Nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosopyrrolidine were detected in 10 samples of various domestic and imported beers analyzed. Total volatile N-nitrosamine concentrations ranged from 0.03 to 1.10 ppb in beer. Minimum detection limit of the method was 0.01 ppb for N-nitrosodimethylamine, a 10-fold increase in sensitivity compared to other similar methods.