Development of a simple and reliable LC-MS/MS method to simultaneously detect walnut and almond as specified in food allergen labelling regulations in processed foods

We developed a simple and reliable analytical method using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to simultaneously detect walnut and almond as specified in regulations for food allergen labelling in processed foods. Five specific target peptides derived from walnut 2S albumin and 7S globulin and three target peptides from almond 11S globulin were selected by analysing several varieties of walnut and almond, eight kinds of other nuts, and ten kinds of major allergen ingredients or cereals. The limit of detection for the walnut 2S albumin peptide GEEMEEMVQSAR (m/z 698.3 [precursor] > 316.1 [product]) was 0.22 ± 0.02 μg/g, and that for almond 11S globulin peptide GNLDFVQPPR (m/z 571.8 [precursor] > 369.2 [product]) was 0.08 ± 0.02 μg/g when extracted walnut and almond protein were spiked into butter cookie chocolate ice cream. These peptides had good linearity (R(2) > 0.999) for each calibration curve with a range of 0.1–50 μg/mL protein concentration in the sample solutions, and sufficient recovery rates (90.4–101.5%) from the spiked samples. The developed analytical approach is applicable to a wide variety of processed foods for food allergen labelling.