A Useful Method with Appropriate Recovery and High Accuracy in Simultaneous Analysis of 12 Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Cereal-Based Baby Foods Using Gas Chromatography-Electron Capture Detector

Background and Objectives: Reliable methods are necessary to analyze polychlorinated biphenyls in baby foods, dietary supplements commonly used for children. Nowadays, contamination of food products, mostly derived from agricultural sources, with polychlorinated biphenyls seems inevitable. Of these, cereal-based baby foods are highly important due to the long-term side effects of polychlorinated biphenyls in babies. Materials and Methods: In this study, a validated method was developed for the assessment of 12 polychlorinated biphenyls in baby foods based on the solid-phase extraction column sample preparation and gas chromatography-electron capture detectore using PCB 77 and PCB 189 as internal standards. Validation of the method was assessed by the calculated and achieved parameters for linearity, mean recovery, precision, limit of quantification and limit of detection. Results: Recoveries at three levels of 0.5, 1 and 2 µg/kg in repeatability and reproducibility studies were in ranges of 78.89–98.32 and 77.28–98.45%, respectively. Linearity was presented as R 2 value from 0.9980 to 0.9999, indicating good correlations between the concentrations and peak areas. Limit of quantification and limit of detection were 0.5 and 0.16 (ng/g). Analysis of 30 samples showed that six polychlorinated biphenyls were available in 7% of the samples; of which, 93% were not contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls. None of the samples contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls included contamination higher than the maximum residue limit. Conclusions: Validated methodology was used in polychlorinated biphenyl analysis in various trademarks of cereal-based baby foods commercialized for the Iranian markets. Samples were screened based on the maximum residue limit by the European Union. This method is a simple method and can be carried out in a short time with high accuracy and precision.