A review of traditional and novel detection techniques for melamine and its analogues in foods and animal feed

Abstract

Melamine, a nitrogen-rich chemical, has received much attention in recent years due to a series of highly publicized food safety incidents, including 2007 pet food recalls in North America and 2008 melamine contamination in milk, infant formula, and other milk-derived products in China. Current analytical methods for testing melamine are time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in the food science and analytical chemistry field to develop simple, quick, sensitive, and cost-effective methods for detection of melamine and its analogues (e.g., cyanuric acid, melamine cyanurate, ammelide, and ammeline) in food ingredients, processed food, and animal feed. This review aims to summarize traditional and novel analytical techniques that have been used or show great potential to detect, characterize, and quantify melamine and its analogues in foods and animal feed.