Determination of bisphenol A in canned fatty foods by coacervative microextraction, liquid chromatography and fluorimetry

Abstract

Decanoic acid reverse micelle-based coacervates were used to provide simple, rapid and almost solventless extraction of bisphenol A (BPA) from canned fatty foods. The procedure involved the extraction of 200–400 mg of homogenised food sample with an aqueous solution containing 20% THF and 200 mg of decanoic acid, conditions under which the coacervate (around 550 µl) formed in situ and instantaneously. The overall sample treatment took about 30 min and several samples could be simultaneously treated using conventional laboratory equipment. No clean-up or solvent evaporation were required before determination of BPA by liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection. Recoveries in samples were between 90 and 99%, with relative standard deviations in the range 2–7%. The limit of quantification ranged 29–15 ng g⁻¹ for 200–400 mg of sample, being far below the current specific migration limit (SML) set by the European Commission (600 ng g⁻¹). The method was successfully applied to the determination of BPA in the solid content of canned fish (from 20 to 129 ng g⁻¹) and meat (from undetected to 37 ng g⁻¹).

Keywords:

• bisphenol A
• canned fatty food
• microextraction
• coacervate
• food analysis
• liquid chromatography–florescence
• reverse micelles

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Andalusian Government (Junta de Andalucía, Spain, Project FQM 166). A. García-Prieto thanks the Spanish MEC for the doctoral fellowship awarded (AP 2003-5344).