Analytical Determination of Vitamin B12 Content in Infant and Toddler Milk Formulas by Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

The development of a sample preparation method and optimization of the analytical instrumentation conditions were performed for the determination of the vitamin B12 content in emulsified baby foods sold on the Korea market. After removal of the milk protein and fats by chloroform extraction and centrifugation, the vitamin B12 was water extracted from the sample. Following filtration of the solution through a nylon filter, the water-soluble extract was purified by solid-phase extraction using a Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The solution eluted from the cartridge was dried under a stream of nitrogen gas and reconstituted with 1 mL of water. The sample solution was injected into an LC-MS/MS system after optimizing the mobile phase for vitamin B12 detection. The calibration curve showed good linearity with the coefficient of correlation (r (2)) value of 0.9999. The limit of detection was 0.03 µg/L and the limit of quantitation was 0.1 µg/L. The method of detection limit was 0.02 µg/kg. The vitamin B12 recovery from a spiking test was 99.62% for infant formula and 99.46% for cereal-based baby food. The sample preparation method developed in this study would be appropriate for the rapid determination of the vitamin B12 content in infant formula and baby foods with emulsified milk characteristics. The ability to obtain stable results more quickly and efficiently would also allow governments to exercise a more extensive quality control inspection and monitoring of products expected to contain vitamin B12. This method could be implemented in laboratories that require time and labor saving.