Analytical strategies based on untargeted and targeted metabolomics for the accurate authentication of organic milk from Jersey and Yak
Min Kang, Hongxia Wang, Chuxin Chen, Ran Suo, Jianfeng Sun, Quanhong Yue, Yaqiong Liu
Abstract
Organic milk has a high risk of food fraud as it can easily be adulterated with non-organic milk. This study aimed to identify metabolite markers for assessing the authenticity of organic milk from Jersey and Yak. In the untargeted strategy, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive HF-X mass spectrometer (UHPLC-Q Exactive HF-X/MS) coupled with chemometrics analysis was used to screen and identify tentative markers of organic milk from Jersey and Yak. In the targeted strategy, a quick and easy method of ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed to quantify three markers. The peptide of Thr-Ala-Val and biotin were determined to be metabolite markers for distinguishing organic and non-organic Jersey milk, whereas trimethylamine N-oxide was determined to be a metabolite marker for distinguishing organic and non-organic Yak milk. These findings provide critical information to facilitate assessments of organic milk authenticity.