Development of a novel IMAC sorbent for the identification of melamine in dairy products by HPLC

•A novel IMAC method was developed for quantification of MEL in dairy products.•Application of the developed IMAC sorbent has the merits of easy prepare, rapidity, and low cost.•The LOD of proposed method was 0.0150 and 0.1261 μg mL−1 in milk and infant formula, respectively.•The proposed method proved to be an accurate, precise, repeatable for MEL analysis.