Analyses of the brominated vegetable oil in soft drinks using gas chromatography–flame ionization detector and atmospheric pressure gas chromatography–quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Herein, a new method for quantifying the brominated vegetable oil content in commercial soft drinks was developed, which accelerated the sample preparation process and improved analytical efficiency. First, simple and accurate chromatographic separation techniques were performed using a VF-5ht column for both GC-FID (quantitative) and APGC-QTOF (qualitative) analyses. The samples were subjected to chromatography on a reversed-phase solid-phase extraction cartridge. (PoraPak™RxnRP). Transesterification using a boron trifluoride methanol complex in methanol solution was performed. When validating this method, the analyte recovery percentages were between 82.2% and 99.9%, and the recovery and standard deviation of repeatability values were between 1.2% and 3.5%. Using an isotope library, the bromostearic acid methyl esters (9,10-dibromostearic acid methyl ester, 9,10,12,13-tetrabromostearic acid methyl ester, and hexabromostearic acid methyl ester) in the sample mixtures were qualitatively confirmed via APGC-QTOF. A novel aqueous ammonium adduct, which has not been previously reported, was also confirmed. These results indicated that this new method was simple, accurate, and also allowed for precise qualitative and quantitative confirmation as well as high reproducibility.