Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in selected foods; analysis and occurrence†

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Abstract
Some methodological aspects of the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in food are outlined with special reference to methods based on the outcome of international collaborative trials. Potential PAH contamination routes of food are reviewed and illustrated by relevant recent literature data. Research for PAH in foods most frequently focusses on benzo(a)pyrene and consequently the majority of cited data also refers to this compound. Special emphasis is given to the situation in The Netherlands. Data for benzo(a)pyrene in various foods and market basket samples are presented along with some figures for indeno(1,2,3‐cd)pyrene and benzo(b)fluoranthene. In The Netherlands thirteen PAH were recently selected for analysis in the scope of the surveillance programme “Man and Nutrition”;. For the analysis of these compounds a capillary gas Chromatographic method is described which employs cold on column injection and flame ionisation detection along with selective isolation and enrichment procedures of the PAH‐fraction. Several aspects of this methodology, e.g., recovery, detection limit and reliability of qualitative and quantitative data are discussed. Total diet samples and kale were analysed with this method and results are presented for: fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(c)phenanthrene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(j)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, 7,12‐dimethylbenz(a)anthracene, benzo(i)pyrene, benzo(a)pyrene, indeno(1,2,3‐cd)pyrene and dibenzo(a,h)pyrene. A new topic in food analyses are N‐heterocyclic hydrocarbons; azaarenes or N‐PAH. Recently a capillary gas Chromatographic method has been tested collaboratively. Some details of this trial are briefly discussed.