Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for the determination of nitrosamines in red wine

N-nitrosamines (NAms) are highly active carcinogens that have been detected in food and beverages. Currently certain studies report their presence in red wine, while others fail to detect their presence. In this study the head space solid phase micro-extraction technique coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was applied to quantify four NAms in different types of red wine. The technique was found to be a simple, precise, fast and environmentally friendly alternative for the quantification of volatile NAms. A factorial analysis was carried out to evaluate the influence of the parameters on the HS-SPME technique. This is the first study that such analysis has been reported and where NAms in red wine have been quantified using HS-SPME-GC-MS. The method was validated by calculating the linearity, limit of detection and quantification. Two of the four NAms analyzed were found to be present in red wine samples.