Liquid chromatographic determination of melamine in beverages

A liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of melamine in beverages. Melamine is separated by column chromatography using cation and anion exchange resin and determined by ion-pair liquid chromatography using an ODS column and a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.05M phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) containing 0.005M sodium 1-laurylsulfate (1 + 4, v/v) as mobile phase. Recoveries of melamine ranged between 90.3 +/- 7.8 and 102.1 +/- 5.6% at levels of 0.6 to 2.4 ppm in 4 kinds of beverages. The quantitation limit was 2.5 micrograms melamine in 50 mL beverage. The method was applied to the migration test of melamine from melamine-formaldehyde resin products to the beverages.