ARS | Publication request: The Highlights, Perils, and Pitfalls of Vitamin D Analysis by Mass Spectrometry

Submitted to: Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 3, 2008
Publication Date: May 18, 2008
Citation: Byrdwell, W.C. 2008. The Highlights, Perils, and Pitfalls of Vitamin D Analysis by Mass Spectrometry. 99th Annual Meeting of the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS), May 18-21, 2008, Seattle, WA.

Technical Abstract: Vitamin D has received a great deal of attention in recent years due to findings that deficiency may play a role in some cancers as well as in heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, birth defects, periodontal disease and others. As the interest in vitamin D becomes more widespread, the need for high quality analytical data regarding the levels of vitamin D in foods increases. Although methods for vitamin D analysis are available in the literature, these have shortcomings and caveats that must be understood if accurate results are to be obtained. This report describes some of the special considerations that must be taken into account for different sample matrices. A comparison of results by ultraviolet (UV) detection to those obtained by selected ion monitoring (SIM) atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) mass spectrometry (MS) is presented. The special case of processed cheese, which produced erroneous results by UV detection but good results by APCI-MS, is highlighted. Unusual results obtained during analysis of commercially available standards are also presented.