In this paper

a gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometric(GC-MS/MS) method was developed for the rapid detection of four furfural compounds

i.e.5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural(5-HMF)

furfural(F)

5-methyl-2-furfural(MF) and 2-acetylfuran(FMC) in fermented milk

which originated from heat treatment.The samples were pretreated by QuEChERS method

then separated on a RTX-WAX column

and finally detected in multi reaction monitoring(MRM) mode.Moreover

the three pretreatment conditions for this experiment were optimized

including extraction solvent

amount of salting-out agent and amount of purifying agent.Under the optimum conditions

the spiked recoveries ranged from 82.2% to 118% with relative standard deviations(RSDs) no more than 10%.There were good linearities for F

FMC and MF in range of 0.002-2 mg/L

and for 5-HMF in the range of 0.02-2 mg/L

with their correlation coefficients not less than 0998.The limits of quantitation(LOQs) and detection limit(LODs) of the method were 3.0-45 μg/kg and 1.0-15 μg/kg

respectively.This method was applied in the determination of five kinds of original favor fermented milk and six kinds of charcoal flavor fermented milk.Results showed that the contents of four furfural compounds in charcoal flavor fermented milk were much higher than those in original fermented milk

indicating that charcoal burning process could lead to the Maillard reaction proceeding thoroughly

indirectly showing that overheat treatment could result in more harmful compounds in fermented milk

which affected its nutritional value and quality.The method is simple

rapid

sensitive and reproducible

and could meet the requirements for qualitative and quantitative analysis

and provide consumers with reasonable purchase suggestions and guidance.