Agradecimentos: We would like to thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-Brazil (CNPq);Fundação Araucária de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Paraná; and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brazil (CAPES) for support and the scholarship Ver menos

Abstract: In the present work, a fast, easy and efficient analytical method was developed and validated for the determination of phenolic compounds (4-hydroxybenzoic, vanillic, caffeic, p-coumaric, sinapic, ferulic and ellagic acids, and naringenin) in red sweet pepper. Extraction of phenolic compounds was carried out using the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) method, followed by separation and detection using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). When the acetate version of the QuEChERS method was used, higher amounts of the phenolic compounds were extracted. In the dispersive solid phase extraction (d-SPE) clean-up step, combination of 50 mg of octadecylsilane (C18) and 7.5 mg of graphitized carbon black (GCB), resulted in the greatest removal of interferents, especially carotenoids, without significant retention of phenolic compounds. The recoveries for the proposed method were 82-103%, the limits of quantification were 2-150 mu g kg(-1), and the precision values expressed in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD) were <= 15%. The method developed was successfully applied to the analysis of different red sweet pepper cultivars Ver menos