Development of Zeolite Imidazole Framework-Based Adsorbent for Effective Microextraction and Preconcentration of Histamine in Food Samples

This study is the first to focus on the preconcentration and determination of histamine (HIS) in food samples using zeolite imidazole frameworks (ZIFs) on a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) platform. ZIF was developed on a polypropylene hollow fiber (PPHF) substrate (ZIF@PPHF) and characterized. The extraction performance was optimized by adjusting several parameters, including pH, contact time for adsorption, and desorption conditions. Under the optimized conditions, a wide linear dynamic range (0.05–250 mg/L) with high R² values (0.9989), low limit of detection (0.019 mg/L), and low limit of quantification (0.050 mg/L) were determined as analytical figures of merit. Additionally, a reusability study confirmed that ZIF@PPHF preconcentrated 83% of the HIS up to the fourth cycle. The developed method was used to preconcentrate HIS in fish and cheese samples. The spiked real samples confirmed the validity and accuracy of this method. The percentage mean recoveries ± relative standard deviation (% RSD, n = 3) at the concentration levels of 5, 10, and 50 mg/L of HIS and the sample amount of 5 g for intra- and inter days ranged from 97 ± 1.10 to 102.80 ± 0.90 and from 96.40 ± 1.82 to 103.40 ± 0.79, respectively. The results suggest that the analytical method validation parameters were acceptable, indicating the repeatability and sensitivity of the method.