Organophosphate esters and their metabolites in marine fish from Vietnam: Analytical method development and validation

Abstract

Organophosphate esters (tri-OPEs), which are a significant group of emerging organic pollutants, have been widely found in aquatic products worldwide. While tri-OPEs have been extensively detected in aquatic products and are known to represent potential risks to human health, there is limited information available regarding their metabolites (di-OPEs). Currently, the techniques for analyzing the composition of tri- and di-OPEs have been distinguished and have certain drawbacks in terms of their expense, time requirements, and reliability. The objective of the study is to develop, validate, and utilize a modified QuEChERS technique for extracting tri- and di-OPEs in marine fish. As a result, EMR-Lipid and WAX were selected as adsorbents for the QuEChERS method to purify the samples and a combination of centrifugal vacuum and nitrogen at a temperature of 1 °C was selected as a technique to enhance the sensitivity of the developed method. The parameters of the method validation are in accordance with the criteria specified in SANTE/11312/2021 (a recovery ranging from 84.0% to 107.4% and RSD of precision below 20%). The aforementioned methodology was employed to assess the tri-OPEs and their metabolites in a total of 72 fish muscle samples obtained from the presence of OPEs in all recorded instances. The average concentration of ΣOPEs was determined to be 87.4±55.0 ng/g dw, with TBOEP and BEHP identified as the predominant compounds. Furthermore, no significant variation in the content of tri- and di-OPEs was observed in fish samples, regardless of species or geographical location.