Multiresidue analysis of environmental pollutants in edible vegetable oils by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A novel multiresidue determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalate esters (PAEs) and alkylphenols (APs) in edible vegetable oils was developed. The samples were extracted with hexane-saturated acetonitrile, and after concentration, the extract was directly qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in positive ion mode. The calibration curve displayed good linearity in the range of 2-100 μg/L, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The mean recoveries were 70.0-110.8% by analysis of spiked oil, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 2.1-10.2% (n=6), respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) for the 23 PAHs, 17 PAEs and 3 APs were 0.1-1.0 μg/kg, 0.1-4.0 μg/kg and 1.2-3.0 μg/kg, respectively. The established method effectively avoided interference from large amounts of lipids and pigments. It was applied to real sample and shown to be a rapid and reliable alternative for determination and confirmation in routine analysis.