Simultaneous determination of 12 preservatives and antioxidants in fruit and vegetable detergents by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method was established for the simultaneous determination of 12 preservatives and antioxidants in fruit and vegetable detergents by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). First, ethanol was added to remove the water in the sample by rotary evaporation and was extracted with acetonitrile in saturated n-hexane. Finally, the residual surfactant in the sample solution was removed with a saturated sodium chloride solution. The purified sample solution was concentrated and metered volume by acetonitrile. The preservatives and antioxidants were separated on a HP-5MS UI capillary column (30 m×0.25 mm×0.25 μm), and detected in the selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The method had a good linearity in the range of 0.1-10 mg/L with correlation coefficients (r2)>0.999, and the limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the ranges of 0.010-0.030 mg/kg and 0.030-0.090 mg/kg, respectively. The recoveries of the 12 preservatives and antioxidants at three spiked levels (0.2, 2.0 and 10 mg/kg) were 68.3%-115.3% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 3.1%-11.3%. (n=7) The method is sensitive and accurate, and can be suitable for the determination of preservatives and antioxidants in fruit and vegetable detergents.