Analysis of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in vegetable oil samples by gas chromatography-ion trap tandem mass spectrometry.

Gas chromatography coupled to ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (CG-MS-MS) has been evaluated for the analysis of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) in vegetable oil samples containing different concentration levels (0.2-6 pg WHO-TEQ g(-1) for both PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs) of the 29 toxic congeners of PCDD/F and dioxin-like PCBs. The effect of potential interfering compounds such as polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated diphenylethers (PCDEs) on the quantification of mono-ortho PCBs has been investigated. In addition, the influence of the clean-up procedure on the final determination by CG-MS-MS was studied, showing that the quality of the results depends to a great extent on this analytical step. Quality parameters have been established and good precisions (CV: 3-19%) and low limits of detection for PCDD/Fs (0.04-0.20 pg g(-1) oil) and dl-PCBs (0.08-0.64 pg g(-1) oil) were obtained. The method was validated by a comparison of the CG-MS-MS results with those obtained by GC-HRMS.