LC-MS/MS analysis of bisphenol S and five other bisphenols in total diet food samples

ABSTRACT

It is already known that bisphenol S (BPS) has been used as a substitute for BPA in thermal papers in recent years. It is not clear, however, if BPS has also been used to replace BPA in can coatings as currently being speculated due to a lack of credible studies on migration of BPS from can coatings and occurrence data of BPS in foods. In this study, an LC-MS/MS method was developed for the analysis of BPS, along with several other bisphenols, and method detection limits for BPS varied from 0.0017 to 3.1 ng/g depending on the type of sample matrix and the amount of sample analysed. This method was used to analyse 159 different food composite samples from a recent Canadian total diet study. Bisphenol E (BPE), bisphenol B (BPB), and bisphenol AF (BPAF) were not detected in any of the 159 food composite samples, bisphenol F (BPF) was detected in only three samples (25–2360 ng/g), and bisphenol A (BPA) was detected in 10 samples (5.3–41 ng/g) which were all prepared from canned foods. BPS was not detected in any of the canned food composite samples but was detected in nine food composite samples prepared from meat and meat products (1.2–35 ng/g), indicating sources for BPS other than can coatings may be possible, which will be investigated in future studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Bisphenol A
• bisphenol S
• food
• total diet
• LC-MS/MS

Acknowledgments

Xu-Liang Cao would like to thank the two reviewers for the critical and constructive comments and suggestions, Nathalie Ritchot (Health Canada) and Pierre Chantal (Health Canada) for training Svetlana Popovic at their laboratory.