How fresh is the fish?
Biogenic amines can be found in a variety of foods,
for example fish, meat, wine, cheese and other fermented
food products. For humans, the ingestion of small amounts
(max. 10 mg) of biogenic amines is harmless. Taken up
in large amounts (1000 mg and higher), they can cause
severe poisoning. Biogenic amines (in fish mainly histamine,
putrescine and cadaverine) are an indicator
of the freshness of fish. They are formed during
the degradation of fish proteins.
|
Analysis of biogenic amines by ion chromatography
The determination of biogenic amines by means of UV
detection after derivatization with dansyl chloride
and separation on a reversed phase column is very time-consuming.
Therefore a simple ion chromatographic procedure using
conductivity detection has been developed
for quality control of fish. Dimethylamine (DMA), trimethylamine
(TMA), trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), histamine, putrescine
and cadaverine in fish can be determined simultaneously.
This procedure does not require an elaborate derivatization.
A kit for testing 10 sea fish samples
is available form Sigma-Aldrich Chemie GmbH (formerly
Fluka; Fluka
no. 53851). This kit, stemming from the collaboration
with Metrohm, includes the IC precolumn, the reagents
for the eluents as well as the buffer and the standard
solutions.
|
Food
Analysis 
