DETERMINATION OF PHTHALATES IN BOTTLED MILK USING HEADSPACE SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION COUPLED WITH GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY

This study reports the level of contamination with phthalates of some commercial bottled milk collected in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The investigated compounds were dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-octyl phthalate (DOP). The method used for the determination of these phthalate esters in commercial bottled milk consists in headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) technique (100 mu m PDMS fibre) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in single ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The recoveries for spiked samples were over 75% and under 95% (RSD 8-13%). The obtained concentrations ranged between 2.12-3.93 and 36.8-77.1 ng/g for DBP and DEHP, respectively, DMP, DEP, BBP and DOP were not detected in any sample.