Abstract: A gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was established for the simultaneous determination of nine flavor compounds (hydrocoumarin, vanillin, coumarin, ethyl vanillin, methyl vanillin, 7-methylcoumarin, 7-methyoxycoumarin, 7-ethoxy-4-mrthyl coumarin, pyranocoumarin) in pasteurized milk. The samples were extracted with ethanol and subjected to whirlpool oscillation. After centrifugation, the supernatant was filtered through a membrane, and the components were separated on a DB-5MS column. The nine analytes were detected by GC-MS/MS in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode and quantified by a matrix-matched external standard method. Good linearities in the range of 1-200 μg/L were observed for the nine flavor compounds. The linear correlation coefficients (R²) were greater than 0.997. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were 0.002-0.1 μg/kg and 0.001-2 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries were 90.3%-110.6%. Both the intra-day and inter-day RSDs were less than 10%. The developed method is simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive, and can be used for the simultaneous determination of the nine flavor compounds in pasteurized milk.

Key words: gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), flavor compounds, pasteurized milk