Development and Validation of a Stable Isotope Dilution Headspace–SPME–GC/MS Method for the Determination of Vanillin in Fragrant Vegetable Oils

Abstract

It has been reported that vanillin has been intentionally added to enhance the taste and flavor of low-quality vegetable oils. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the accurate concentrations of vanillin in three types of fragrant vegetable oils commonly consumed in China. In this study, a method has been developed for the quantification of vanillin in commercial fragrant vegetable oils using the stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) and headspace–solid-phase microextraction (HS–SPME) coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the analyte were determined to be 20 µg kg−1 and 50 µg kg−1, respectively. The validation study demonstrated that the recoveries ranged from 89% to 101%, with intra-day and inter-day precision being less than 7.46%. A survey of 80 commercially available fragrant vegetable oils was performed using the present method. Vanillin was found to be widely present in fragrant vegetable oils, with sesame oils showing the highest average content (842.6 µg kg−1), followed by rapeseed oils (262.1 µg kg−1) and peanut oils (115.0 µg kg−1). The results indicate that the proposed method is a simple, accurate, and eco-friendly approach for determining the presences of vanillin in fragrant vegetable oils.