Methods for the analysis of melamine and related compounds in foods: a review

In recent years, two adulteration incidents concerning the addition of melamine (MEL) and related compounds to dairy products and vegetable proteins have occurred in China. These episodes prompted numerous governmental and private laboratories to develop or implement methods for the analysis of a wide variety of food products for MEL and related compounds, including cyanuric acid, ammeline, and ammelide. Methods have been developed for both screening and quantitation purposes; procedures used in the methods range from sensitive hyphenated chromatographic-mass spectrometric techniques to immunoselective assays. Various issues are encountered during the analysis of MEL and related compounds in food products. These issues include contamination, matrix effects, and analyte instability, and their severity varies according to the method used, and matrices and analytes examined.