Development and validation of a method for determination of 17 endocrine disrupting chemicals in milk, water, blood serum and feed by UHPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

The concern for human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) has led to the introduction of other bisphenols to be used as substitutes in industrial processes. These compounds show activity similar to BPA as endocrine disruptors and could be already widespread both in the environment and in food. To monitor their possible occurrence in the food chain, an analytical method based on affinity chromatography clean-up and UHPLC coupled to tandem mass spectrometry detection was developed and in-house validated according to European law, for simultaneous determination of 17 bisphenols in milk and blood serum from bovine and buffalo, in drinking water and in feed. The analytical performance parameters of the method for these matrices were determined. The results showed satisfactory precision in terms of relative standard deviation (3.3%–21.4%), overall good trueness as mean percentage recoveries (77.0%–119.4%), with the only exception of bisphenol PH and bisphenol S in milk and BPA diglycidyl ether in serum. The high specificity and sensitivity of the method allowed us to determine the analytes at very low concentrations, that is, 0.01–1.0 ng/mL in water, 0.1–2.0 ng/mL in milk, 0.01–1.0 ng/g in blood serum and 1.0–10.0 ng/g in feed.

Keywords:

• Imprinted polymers
• method validation
• LC-MS/MS
• bis-phenol A
• environmental contaminants
• BADGE
• packaging
• milk
• water
• animal feed

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Damiano Gustavo Mita, who started this work; his teaching and memory are always inspiration for our studies. They would like to thank Dr. Tiziana Hauber and Dr. Mario Esposito for their support in some analyses.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.