Simultaneous Determination of 2- and 3-MCPD Esters in Infant Formula
Milk Powder and Edible Vegetable Oils by Gas Chromatography-Mass
Spectrometry
Abstract
Esters of 2- and 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (MCPD) are vital
contaminants of processed edible oils used as foods or food ingredients.
The aim of this study was to develop and validatea new method by GC-MS
for the simultaneous quantification of 2-MCPD, 3-MCPD in infant milk
powder and edible vegetable oils. The developed protocol included fat
fraction in infant milk powder and edible vegetable oils samples was
extracted and treated with sodium methylate–methanol to cleave the
ester bonds of the 2- and 3-MCPD esters, moreover, standard samples of
deuterium isotope–labeled 2- and 3-MCPD palmitic acid double esters and
stearic acid double esters were used as the internal standards.
Furthermore, this method was validated when it was applied to food
products, concrete manifestation in its good accuracy (the recovery of
MCPD esters ranged from 86% to 114%), high sensitivity (the LOD of
3-MCPD and 2-MCPD esters were 0.025 and 0.020 mg/kg, LOQ were 0.075,
0.060 mg/kg, respectively) and satisfactory repeatability (RSD below
6.8%) for all analytes. In the 150 commercial edible vegetable oils and
infant formula milk powder samples, we obtained a preliminary profile of
MCPD ester contamination.