Simultaneous Determination of 2- and 3-Monochloropropan-1,3-diol Esters in Foods by Enzymatic Hydrolysis and GC–MS Detection

A simple, reliable and accurate method for simultaneous determination of 2- and 3-monochloropropan-1,3-diol fatty acid esters (2- and 3-MCPD esters) in food by enzymatic hydrolysis and gas chromatography mass spectrometry was developed and validated. The extraction of lipids in food was conducted by mixed with hexane and homogenized for 2 min. After extraction, the lipids were directly transferred to enzymatic hydrolysis and the content was determined by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it can simultaneously analyse both 2- and 3-MCPD esters in foods and preserve their structural integrity. The limits of detection (LODs) of 2- and 3-MCPD esters in edible oil were 40 and 20 μg kg^?1 as 2- and 3-MCPD, respectively. For low fat foods containing less than 3 % fat, the LOD of 2- and 3-MCPD esters were lowered to 1.2 and 0.6 μg kg^?1 as 2- and 3-MCPD, respectively. Quantitative recoveries of different fatty acid esters of 2- and 3-MCPD esters were obtained after spiked corresponding standards into blank matrices.