Combined use of analyte protectants and precolumn backflushing for a robust, high-throughput quantitative determination of aroma compounds in cigarette mainstream smoke by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

•A GC–MS/MS method was developed to determine 559 aroma compounds in cigarette smoke.•An analyte protectant mixture that suited wide polar range solvents was proposed.•The use of precolumn backflushing markedly improved the instrument robustness.•This method is fit-for-purpose in routine analysis of a large number of samples.