Study of chloropropanols in soy sauce by gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry with coupled column separation without derivatisation

Abstract

A qualitative and quantitative determination method for chloropropanols in soy sauce was developed by GC-MS/MS with coupled column separation without derivatisation. The target compounds were 1,3-dichloropropan-2-ol (1,3-DCP), 2,3-dichloropropan-1-ol (2,3-DCP), 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and 2-monochloropropane-1,3-diol (2-MCPD). 3-MCPD-d₅ was used as an isotope internal standard for MCPDs and 1,3-DCP-d₅ for DCPs. After spiking with internal standards and mixed with 1 g of Extrelut™ NT, about 1 g of the sample was washed by 4 ml of hexane and the analytes were eluted with 15 ml of 95% (v/v) ethyl ether/hexane mixture. The concentrated extract was directly injected without derivatisation, separated by a coupled column – a 3 m Innowax (polyethylene glycol) combined with a 30 m DB-5 ms ((5%-phenyl)-methylpolysiloxane) by a quartz capillary column connector – and detected by GC-MS/MS. The limits of detection (LODs) in the sample matrix were 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 5.0 µg kg⁻¹ for the above chloropropanols, respectively. The relative proportions of 2-MCPD/3-MCPD ranged from 0.19 to 3.74 in soy sauce samples. 2,3-DCP and 2-MCPD were more stable than 1,3-DCP and 3-MCPD under alkaline condition. The levels of chloropropanols can be decreased by an alkaline treatment process.

Keywords:

• chloropropanols
• soy sauce
• gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)
• isotope labelled internal standard
• coupled column
• stability in an alkaline condition

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science Research Foundation Program of Zhejiang Provincial Medicine and Health (2009A039), the Zhejiang Provincial Analysis and Measurement Foundation (04016), and the Program for Zhejiang Leading Team of Science and Technology Innovation (2011R50021).