A new method for Monitoring seafood quality and spoilage using a novel dye Reagent, alizarin red S activated Si-HOBt

Abstract

Ensuring adequate food quality is essential for the health and safety of consumers and populations worldwide. Monitoring seafood and fish quality indicators during processing, storage, and on store shelves is critical to anticipate spoilage and quality deterioration, consequently preventing fish poisoning and fish-borne illnesses. Common chemical indicators of fish quality deterioration and spoilage are biogenic amines (BAs). BAs are endogenous amines found at low levels in microorganisms, plants, and animals, where they play contributing roles in the biosynthesis of nucleic acids, proteins, alkaloids, and hormones. They are the result of biochemical reactions between amines and carbonyl-containing compounds (i.e., ketones or aldehydes) but also the products of the bacterial-induced decarboxylation of unbound amino acids in cells. As fish quality degrades due to several factors, including spoilage induced by increased bacterial and enzymatic activities, handling, and temperature, the concentrations of biogenic amines increase to unhealthy levels for humans. Consumption of fish and fish products containing high concentrations of biogenic amines has been attributed to fish-related toxicity and illnesses. A common fish-borne illness in humans is scombroid poisoning (histamine poisoning), which occurs as a result of consumption of fish from Scombridae and Scomberesocidae families (i.e., mackerel, tuna, mahi-mahi, etc.). Government health officials worldwide have established safe levels or concentration limits for biogenic amines to ensure and maintain fish quality and safety. In the United States, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has set histamine concentrations not to equal or exceed 50 mg/kg for a whole fish, while the European Union establishes the maximum dose of histamine at 100–––200 mg/kg for fish and 400 mg/kg for fish products. In Brazil, the maximum concentration of histamine in whole and gutted fish is set at 10 mg/100 g. Many qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze biogenic amines have been developed and used to monitor the quality of fish and fish products . A common method for biogenic amines analyses in fish is reversed-phase HPLC with pre or post-column derivatization. One of the common derivatizing reagents for BAs in fish is ophthalaldehyde (OPA). However, OPA only derivatized primary amines and the derivatized products are unstable. Herein, we are reporting a novel sensitive and versatile reagent, a red dye, alizarin red S activated silica-bound 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (alizarin red S activated Si-HOBt), for off-line pre-column derivatization of biogenic amines, including histamine, tyramine, putrescine, diethylamine, pyrrolidine, phenylethylamine, and isopropylamine followed by their qualitative and quantitative analysis using HPLC-UV. Mackerel, a fish from the Scombridae family, was used in the application. The chromatographic run time was less than 1 h, BAs were extracted in acetonitrile/triethylamine, and the derivatized biogenic amines were stable at room temperature and in the chromatographic conditions.