Simultaneous Determination of 20 Phthalate Esters in Oil-free Food by UPLC/MS/MS

Abstract A quantitative method was established for the determination of 20 phthalate esters (PAEs) in oil-free food by ultra-performance LC/MS/MS and was used to evaluate the PAEs of 111 oil-free samples from supermarkets in Hangzhou City. By quantification with the internal standard D4-bis(2-ethylexyl) phthalate, linearity ranges of the 20 PAEs were observed with correlation coefficients of 0.9990–0.9999. For liquid and solid sample, the spiking recoveries were 65.5–129.9% with RSD of 2.7–9.7% and 70.9–126.9% with RSD of 1.6–9.8% (n = 6), and the method LODs were 0.05–7.4 μg/L and 0.6–14.4 μg/kg, respectively. Most of the 111 oil-free samples had detectable PAEs; the detection rate was 23.0–42.0%, and the concentration of PAEs was in the range of 1.0–38 610.9 μg/kg. The detection rate in the drink packaged in a glass bottle was the highest, next was laver, and the detection rate in the drink packaged in a plastic bottle was the lowest.