Simultaneous analysis of phthalates, adipate and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in edible oils using isotope dilution-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for simultaneous determination of 12 priority phthalates, adipate and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in edible oils by isotope dilution-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (ID-GC–MS) was developed for fast, accurate and trace analysis. The extraction and clean-up procedures were optimised, and using stable isotope-labelled internal standards for each analyte, relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.92–10.6% and spiked sample recoveries of 80.6–97.8% were obtained. Limits of detection for PAHs were in the range of 0.15–0.77 µg/kg and those for phthalates were in the range of 4.6–10.0 µg/kg. The calibration curves exhibited good linearities with regression coefficients of R² ≥ 0.99. Twelve edible oils were examined to evaluate the efficiency of this method. Among the 12 analytes, dibutyl phthalates (DBP), diethylhexyl phthalates (DEHP), diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA), benzo[a]anthracene (B[a]A), chrysene (Chry) and benzo[b]fluoranthene (B[b]F) were detected in the range of 1.17–806 µg/kg.

Keywords:

• phthalates
• adipate
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• isotope dilution
• GC–MS
• edible oils
• simultaneous determination

Funding

Financial support from the Korea Food and Drug Administration [grant number 10162KFDA994, 2012] and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology [grant number 2VO2952, 2013] are gratefully acknowledged.