Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been classified as priority pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Commission on the grounds of their carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic properties. Because of their ubiquity in industrial processes and the environment, PAHs can reach milk and dairy products and, eventually, humans. In this work, a new method was developed to detect and quantify sixteen of the EPA’s priority PAHs in commercial milk and dairy products. The method involves liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) followed by semi-automated solid-phase extraction (SPE) to clean up and preconcentrate the analytes prior their detection and quantification by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The proposed method provided high precision (relative standard deviation < 11.5%), recoveries of 80–107% and low detection limits (1–200 ng/kg). The method was applied to analyze 30 dairy products, the majority of which contained some PAH at concentrations from 7.1 to 1900 ng/kg. The most-detected analytes were the lighter PAHs (naphthalene, acenaphthylene, fluorene and phenanthrene). None of the samples, however, contained more than four PAHs.
Highlights
Milk and dairy products are among the most nutritionally complete foods available on the market and have historically been essential to the human diet because of their contents of micro- and macronutrients
A total of sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) deemed to be priority pollutants by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were determined in milk and dairy products using an LLE–solid-phase extraction (SPE)/gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method for the extraction, cleanup, detection and quantification of the analytes free from interferences from the sample matrix
The precision, linearity, recoveries and limits of detection afforded by the method make it an effective choice for determining the target analytes in milk and dairy samples
Summary
Milk and dairy products are among the most nutritionally complete foods available on the market and have historically been essential to the human diet because of their contents of micro- and macronutrients This has raised increasing concern with their safety [1], which can be compromised by physical, chemical and microbiological contamination during the animal production of milk or, subsequently, during the transport, storage, processing or delivery of milk and dairy products [2]. Prominent among the chemical contaminants are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that are formed by the incomplete combustion of organic matter that can reach food through fuel combustion, industrial processes, degasification, petroleum derivative tasks and through food processing operations, such as drying, smoking or cooking [3]. PAHs can cause different types of cancer (digestive tract, skin and lungs) [5]
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