Sensitive gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method for the determination of bisphenol A in rice-prepared dishes

Abstract

Certain chemicals possess the potential to modulate endocrine systems, and thereby interfere with reproductive and developmental processes. Bisphenol A is suspected to be one of them. The compound is widely used as a plastic additive, lacquer, resin, or plastic and can usually be found in food samples. An accurate and reproducible gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method to detect and measure trace amounts of the compound in rice-prepared dishes samples is proposed. Solid–liquid extraction with acetonitrile was carried out in order to isolate and pre-concentrate the analyte. The solvent was removed and a silylation step using N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoro acetamide/pyridine (BSTFA/PYR) was carried out. The silylated compound was identified and quantified by GC-MS using a DB-5 MS column. Bisphenol F was used as a surrogate internal standard. The detection limit was 2.0 ng g⁻¹ while inter- and intra-day variability was less than 6%. Due to the absence of reference materials, the method was validated using standard addition calibration and a recovery assay. Recoveries for spiked samples were between 90% and 105%.

Keywords:

• gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
• clean-up
• bisphenol A
• food-contact materials
• canned foods
• rice