Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in food

Significance of the topic

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are industrially produced or unintentionally formed chemicals that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in biota, and pose serious health risks. Their presence in food products such as fish, honey, and dairy demands sensitive and reliable analytical methods to ensure consumer safety and regulatory compliance.

Objectives and Overview

This compendium presents advanced analytical strategies for determination of various POP classes in food and feed matrices. Key goals include reducing solvent consumption, shortening analysis time, enhancing throughput, and achieving confirmatory-level specificity. Studies cover:

• Fish tissue analysis of halogenated hydrocarbons
• Multi-class pesticide and POP detection in honey
• Dioxin-like PCB confirmation in food and feed
• Short-chained chlorinated paraffins screening
• High-throughput PCDD/F quantitation
• Brominated flame retardant profiling by GC-ICP-MS
• Perfluorinated compounds in human milk
• Nitrofuran metabolite detection in honey
• Non-targeted screening of environmental and food samples

Methodology and Instrumentation

Extraction and clean-up approaches emphasize accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) with inline sorbents for lipid-rich matrices. Chromatographic separations employ gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) on dedicated capillary and high-performance columns. Detection modalities include triple-quadrupole GC-MS/MS, high-resolution GC-Orbitrap MS, magnetic sector GC-HRMS, GC-ICP-MS, and LC-MS/MS. Automated sample introduction is realized with multipurpose robotic autosamplers.

Key Results and Discussion

Across all applications, methods achieved:

• Detection limits at picogram to low nanogram per gram levels
• Good recoveries (>80 %) and precision (≤15 % RSD)
• Rapid one-step extraction workflows reducing solvent use by up to 80 %
• Multi-residue quantification and confirmatory analyses in a single run
• Compliance with European and international regulation criteria for confirmation and quantitation
• Enhanced throughput via dual-column and multiplexed GC configurations
• Robust non-target screening revealing unexpected contaminants

Benefits and Practical Applications

These integrated workflows support routine food safety laboratories, offering:

• Streamlined sample preparation with minimal manual steps
• High sensitivity and selectivity for regulated POPs
• Flexibility for expanding target lists and screening unknowns
• Reduced analysis time and operational costs
• Traceability and data integrity through dedicated software platforms

Future Trends and Opportunities

Emerging directions include broader adoption of high-resolution accurate-mass instruments for unknown screening, integration of machine-learning algorithms for data interpretation, miniaturized and green extraction technologies, and multi-class, multi-matrix methods. On-site or portable MS systems and further automation of sample workflows will accelerate response to contamination events.

Conclusion

This collection of applications demonstrates the capabilities of modern extraction, separation, and mass spectrometric technologies to meet stringent food safety requirements for POP analysis. By combining high throughput, sensitivity, and confirmatory power, these methods enable laboratories to monitor and control persistent organic contaminants effectively.

Used Instrumentation

• Dionex ASE 350 Accelerated Solvent Extractor
• Thermo Scientific™ TRACE™ 1310 GC with Instant Connect injectors
• TSQ 8000 Evo and TSQ Vantage triple-quadrupole GC-MS/MS
• TriPlus RSH autosampler
• Exactive GC Orbitrap MS
• DFS Magnetic Sector GC-HRMS
• iCAP Q GC-ICP-MS
• Hypersil GOLD™ PFP and Accucore™ RP-MS columns
• Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap LC-MS/MS

References

• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, 2001