An accurate and rapid method, was devised for the identification and quantitation of dimethyl yellow dye in curry, based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry interfaced with electrospray.Mass spectral acquisition was done in positive Accessories ion mode applying two fragmentation transitions to provide a high degree of selectivity.The extraction system provided a very high recovery (100.0% to 105.8%) and good results were obtained for the limit of Specialty Forks detection (5 μg/kg) and limit of quantitation (16 μg/kg).
The applicability of the method to identifing and quantifing the unauthorised dimethyl yellow dye in curry was demonstrated.