Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes in Frying Oils in Jordan

Abstract

In this study, an efficient gas chromatography with mass-spectrometric detector (GC/MS) method has been developed for extraction and quantitation of 16 carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAH in frying edible oil. The method showed satisfactory linearity (R² > 0.995) over the range (1.00–100.0 µg kg⁻¹), the limits of detection were 0.0700 to 1.26 µg kg⁻¹, limits of quantitation ranged from 0.230 to 4.20 µg kg⁻¹, and the recovery ranged from 71.5% to 101. %. Samples of used frying edible oils have been collected from different fast food restaurants in Jordan. The mean of the 16 PAH in the oil samples ranged from 1.49 to 65.7 µg kg⁻¹, while the concentration of Benzo[a]pyrene ranged from 3.08 to 4.09 µg kg⁻¹. In addition, the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) associated with PAH was estimated, and ranged from 1.01 × 10⁻⁹ to 3.33 × 10⁻⁶, indicating a slight potential risk. A second objective of this research involved calculation of p-Anisidine values (AVs) in the collected frying oil samples as an indicator for the presence of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. The AVs in the investigated oil samples ranged from 14.3 to 71.3 and the estimated concentration of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes was 33 μmol g⁻¹ which is higher that the internationally proposed maximum limits. The outcomes of this study show that regulations on PAHs and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes in frying oils must be established in Jordan.

Keywords:

• PAH
• α,β-unsaturated aldehydes
• GC-MS
• frying edible oil
• Jordan

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Al-Balqa Applied University for financial supports.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Al-Balqa Applied University (no special grant was awarded for this project).