Identification of 9 Synthetic Pigments Illegally Added to Tea Based on Online Purification Combined with Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Technology

HUANG Chaoqun; WU Juan; CHEN Hongping; QIU Ruihan; HUANG Jiabo; WANG Yi; CHEN Li; HAN Chao

doi:10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2026.03.012

2026 , Vol. 46 >Issue 3: 499 - 508

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2026.03.012

Research Paper

Identification of 9 Synthetic Pigments Illegally Added to Tea Based on Online Purification Combined with Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Technology

HUANG Chaoqun ,
WU Juan ,
CHEN Hongping ,
QIU Ruihan ,
HUANG Jiabo ,
WANG Yi ,
CHEN Li ,
HAN Chao

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1. Technical Center of Hangzhou Customs, Hangzhou 310016, China;
2. Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China;
3. College of Biology and Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou 310015, China

Received date: 2025-12-02

Revised date: 2026-01-18

Online published: 2026-06-16

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Abstract

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of nine synthetic pigments illegally added to tea, such as tartrazine and sunset yellow by online purification was established. The samples were first soaked in water, then extracted with ammonia water and methanol solution, purified online by Cyclone-P column, and then determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Under optimized conditions, the nine pigments showed a good linear relationship within the mass concentration range of 0.010-1.0 μg·mL^-1, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.999. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) of nine colorants were 0.10-0.50 mg·kg^-1. The mean recoveries ranged from 71.5% to 105.9%, with the relative standard deviation of ≤8.7%. This method is simple, rapid, has good selectivity and reproducibility, high sensitivity, accurate and reliable results. It has obvious advantages for the quantitative detection of illegal added pigments to tea samples.

Key words： liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); online purification; tea; pigment

Cite this article

HUANG Chaoqun , WU Juan , CHEN Hongping , QIU Ruihan , HUANG Jiabo , WANG Yi , CHEN Li , HAN Chao . Identification of 9 Synthetic Pigments Illegally Added to Tea Based on Online Purification Combined with Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Technology[J]. Journal of Tea Science, 2026 , 46(3) : 499 -508 . DOI: 10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2026.03.012

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