Determination of 22 elements in pre-prepared meat using inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry method

As an important part of modern diet, the elemental composition of pre-prepared meat (PM) directly affects consumers’ health. This study aims to reveal the true content and distribution characteristics of elements in PM through inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS), providing a scientific basis for food safety regulation, nutritional assessment and product development. This study optimized the pretreatment conditions, ultimately selecting 5 mL of HNO₃ + 2 mL of 30% H₂O₂ as the digestion reagent, and using microwave digestion conditions with a maximum temperature of 190 °C to digest the samples, and then detecting the content of various elements in PM through ICP-MS/MS. The results showed that all elements had good linear relationships with the linear correlation coefficients greater than 0.999 7. The detection limits ranging from 0.620 to 421 ng/L, the spiked recoveries reach 93.4%–105.0%, and the relative standard deviations less than 5.89%. The measurement results of the national standard chicken meat substance (GBW10018) are all within the standard deviation range of the standard value, which indicates that this method has high accuracy and precision and is suitable for the detection of PM products. Using this method, we evaluated the content of 22 elements in PM, including pork, beef, mutton, chicken and duck meat. The results showed that the contents of Ca, Mg, Zn, and Fe in the five types of PM were relatively high, while the contents of heavy metal elements were very low. This study provides technical support for the strict monitoring of PM, which also offers consumers a more transparent and secure basis for food selection, thereby promoting the popularization of healthy eating concepts.