Determination of histamine in fish products by capillary electrophoresis and ion-pair liquid chromatography with diode-array detection

A method for histamine determination in fish and fish products by capillary electrophoresis and ion-pair liquid chromatography has been developed. Histamine was extracted from different fish samples with 10% trichloroacetic acid, and the filtrate was directly applied to capillary electrophoresis apparatus. A preliminary purification through a solid phases extraction cartridge (Sep-pak C18) was necessary for HPLC analysis. Histamine was detected ‘on-line’ at 210 nm by both approaches. HPLC procedure allowed accurate (±2.2%) and repeatable (±1.6%) determination of histamine in fish products at appropriate levels (20–100 mg kg−1) to meet current regulations