Abstract: Melamine is a nitrogen-rich compound (about 66%) whose fraudulent addition to foods aims to increase the apparent protein content. In 2008, melamine adulteration incidents occurred in China caused several deaths in humans from kidney failure and other health problems. This issue prompted private as well as governmental laboratories to develop several analytical methods in order to determine melamine in foods. This review aims to provide an overview of the analytical techniques currently available in the literature for melamine detection and measurement in milk and dairy products, including a specific section related to sample preparation. Recent studies concerning conventional (both screening and confirmatory) methods are reported, and technical and critical issues are discussed for each technique (liquid and gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis). These techniques, very sensitive and specific but also time-consuming, may require tedious sample preparation, costly instrumentation, and skilled personnel. Therefore, new innovative detection methods are also provided, focusing attention on immunoassay, sensor technology, vibrational spectroscopy coupled to chemometrics, hyperspectral imaging, micellar liquid chromatography, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and chemiluminescence
Author keywords: Melamine, Analytical techniques, Milk, Dairy products, Screening and confirmatory methods