Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Followed by HS-SPME for the Determination of Flavor Enhancers in Seafood Using GC-MS

The determination of flavor compounds using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) can be severely interfered with by complex food matrices in food systems, especially solid samples. In this study, dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) was applied prior to HS-SPME to efficiently reduce the matrix effect in solid seafood samples. The method had high sensitivity (the quantification limits of maltol and ethyl maltol were 15 and 5 μg/kg, respectively), an excellent linear relationship (R2 ≥ 0.996), and the sample recovery rate was 89.0–118.6%. The relative standard deviation (RSD %) values for maltol and ethyl maltol were lower than 10%. Maltol (from 0.7 to 2.2 μg/g) and ethyl maltol (from 0.9 to 34.7 μg/g) in seafood were detected in the selected samples by the developed method. Finally, DLLME coupled with HS-SPME effectively removed the influence of sample matrix and improved the sensitivity of the method. The developed method was applicable in the analysis of flavor enhancers in complex matrix foods.