An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of emicarbazide (SEM) in flour and flour products.MethodsStable isotope labeled internal standard was added to the sample and SEM reacted with o-nitrobenzaldehyde in 0.2 mol/L HCl to produce stable derivatization. The derivatization was cleaned up with HLB SPE cartridge, eluted with ethyl acetate, dried with nitrogen, and redissolved with 0.1% formic acid. The sample was separated on a waters BEH C₁₈ column. The detection was performed with waters Xevo TQ-S using postive electrospray ionization mode and multiple-reaction monitoring mode. ResultsThe results showed that the linear range for SEM was 0.5-100 μg/kg in flour. The method showed good accuracy with RSD<20% (n=6) and recovery in between 60% to 120%.ConclusionThis method is fast, simple and has good reproducibility. It is suitable for semicarbazide determination in flour and flour products.