Abstract:

Objective To establish a method for the determination of 18 phthalate esters（PAEs） in prepackaged food using gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry（GC-MS/MS），providing technical support for the investigation and evaluation of PAEs contamination in prepackaged foods. Methods Acetonitrile was used to extract PAEs from homogenized samples. After extraction，the solution was purified by dispersive solid-phase extraction using silica and PSA，and the solvent was replaced with n-hexane. Separation was performed using a DB-5MS chromatographic column，and multiple reaction monitoring（MRM） scanning was used for detection，with isotope internal standard quantification. Results Under the conditions of this method，diisononylortho-phthalate（DINP） exhibited good linearity within the concentration range of 0.50-10.00 μg/mL，while the other 17 PAEs showed good linearity in the range of 0.02-1.00 μg/mL，with correlation coefficients（R²） greater than 0.997. The detection limits of the method were between 0.003 and 0.050 mg/kg. Recovery experiments were conducted at three concentration levels using low-background samples，with average recoveries ranging from 86.9% to 109.0%，and relative standard deviations（n=6） from 0.44% to 5.16%. Conclusion The established method is characterized by its simplicity，rapidity，and efficiency，providing accurate and reliable quantitative results，and can offer reliable technical support for the investigation and assessment of PAEs contamination in prepackaged food.

Key words: Phthalate esters, Diisononylortho-phthalate, Prepackaged food, Gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry, Multiple reaction monitoring