Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of organic compounds produce through incomplete
combustion or pyrolysis of organic matter. The occurrence of PAHs in food is due to environmental
contamination, poor technological processing and from contaminated packaging material. Since they have been
proven to present carcinogenic and genotoxic effect, the rapid and reliable determination of these compounds in
food is very important. In particular, due to the lipophilic nature of such compounds, fats and oils can be highly
contaminated. In 2005 the European Commission fixed a limit for only the benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), but more
recently an Opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has suggest to consider the sum of 4 PAHs
(BaP, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene, and benzo(b)fluoranthene).
The aim of the present work is to optimize and validate a rapid method for determination of PAHs in edible oil
by using direct-immersion solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography (GC) coupled
with a mass spectrometer (MS). The method was validated in terms of repeatability, accuracy, limit of detection,
and limit of quantification for benzo(a)pyrene using a GC/MS approach, but it can also successfully apply for
determination of the 15+1 European PAHs using a multidimensional comprehensive technique coupled with a
time-of-flight (ToF) MS. In both cases the results were within the characteristics established by the UE
Regulation. Furthermore, the solvent volume and other discharged matter, such as plastic cartridges were reduce
to minimum, thus resulting environmental friendly.
