Characterization and investigation of 16 European priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in commercial infant formula milk powder in Hangzhou

Abstract

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) method for the determination of 16 European priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(16 EUPAHs) in infant formula milk powder was established, and the characterization and investigation of 16 EUPAHs in 70 milk formula powders were carried out in 2020. After hydrolysis, extraction, saponification and solid phase extraction, infant formula milk powder was detected by GC-MS using DB-EUPAH capillary column(20 m×0.18 mm, 0.14 μm)and quantified by internal standard method. The average recoveries ranged from 67.8% to 116.2% and the relative standard deviations ranged from 2.0% to 15.1%(n=6). The limits of quantification and detection of the method were 0.5 and 0.2 μg/kg, respectively. The content of 16 EUPAHs was <0.2-0.48 μg/kg, including PAH4 content in the range of <0.2-0.91 μg/kg, the characterization and investigation of infant formula powder in 16 EUPAHs mainly chrysene, cyclopenta[c, d]pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[g, h, i]perylene. The method is simple, accurate and suitable for the determination of 16 EUPAHs in infant formula milk powder. The result showed that the content of 16 EUPAHs in commercially available infant formula milk powder in Hangzhou was low and all of them met the limit requirement of European Union.