In the present study, date seeds as the main by-product of Phoenix dactylifera L. fruit, were roasted and analyzed for its acrylamide (AA) content for the first time. For this purpose, a QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) protocol combined with HPLC–PDA was established for determination of AA in various roasted date seed varieties including Sayer, Shahani, Mazafati and Kabkab which the last one was used in the optimization experiments. To optimize the QuEChERS technique, AA was firstly extracted using acetonitrile from aqueous extract with or without n-hexane as the primary cleaning approach. Then, the selection of sorbent combination (primary secondary amine (PSA), octadecylsilane (C18), SAX (strong ion exchange), florisil, aluminum oxide) was performed for further clean-up. The protocol including n-hexane along with acetonitrile and further purification with PSA/SAX/C18 resulted in a light yellow, clear and transparent extract with 94.2% extraction recovery and 5.93–7.27% method intra-day precision. Validated analytical method showed the LOD of 7.73 µg L−1 and LOQ of 25.76 µg L−1. The intra-day (2.43–5.05%) and inter-day precision of instrument (1.73–4.96%) were also satisfactory. Mean AA content in four varieties of roasted date seeds ranged from 83.6 to 218.2 µg kg−1. The melanoidins content and browning index of samples were determined as well, and the values of 3.16–3.75 g 100 g−1 and 112.6–131.2 were obtained, respectively. In general, this study introduced roasted date seed as a contributor of consumer exposure to AA which can be determined successfully using QuEChERS method combined with HPLC–PDA.

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