{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T16:03:49Z","timestamp":1784822629523,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784764800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Beijing High-Level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Support Program\u2014Young Top Talent Projects","award":["20250598"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20250598"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxins"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Arachidonic acid (ARA) is an essential long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid for infant growth and development, commonly added to infant formula and supplementary foods as ARA oil or ARA powder. Since December 2025, infant formula products have been recalled in several countries due to cereulide contamination in ARA ingredients. Cereulide, a heat-resistant emetic toxin produced by Bacillus cereus, presents a serious threat to infant health. However, specific analytical methods for cereulide detection in ARA raw materials remain scarce, hindering effective quality control and source prevention of food safety hazards. This study developed and validated a rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography\u2013tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS\/MS) method for the quantitative determination of cereulide in ARA oil and powder. Sample pretreatment was optimized according to matrix characteristics: for microencapsulated ARA powder, water dissolution was performed to release cereulide before acetonitrile extraction, whereas direct extraction was applied to ARA oil. Subsequent HLB-P pass-through solid-phase extraction effectively eliminated matrix interference in both matrices. The method exhibited excellent linearity (R2 &gt; 0.999) from 0.1 to 20 \u03bcg\u00b7L\u22121, with an LOD of 0.03 \u03bcg\u00b7kg\u22121 and an LOQ of 0.1 \u03bcg\u00b7kg\u22121, respectively. Spike recoveries reached 90.7\u2013107.0% for ARA oil (RSDs \u2264 6.5%) and 88.5\u2013107.9% for ARA powder (RSDs \u2264 7.0%). This rapid and reliable method provides a critical analytical tool to monitor cereulide in ARA raw materials and mitigate infant safety hazards at the source.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxins18080320","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T15:05:42Z","timestamp":1784819142000},"page":"320","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Development and Validation of a Rapid UPLC-MS\/MS Determination of Cereulide in ARA Oil and ARA Powder"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Xia","family":"Cui","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zixiao","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziyi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Hou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Qinghai Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Xining 810021, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rong","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sai","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129971","DOI":"10.1016\/j.talanta.2026.129971","article-title":"Current methods and emerging strategies for the detection of foodborne bacterial protein toxins","volume":"309","author":"Fatima","year":"2026","journal-title":"Talanta"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115650","DOI":"10.1016\/j.foodres.2024.115650","article-title":"Global epidemiology and health risks of Bacillus cereus infections: Special focus on infant foods","volume":"201","author":"Li","year":"2025","journal-title":"Food Res. 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