Determination of residual ethylene dibromide in cereals by glass capillary gas chromatography.

This study describes two methods for the quantitative determination of residual ethylene dibromide (1,2-dibromoethane) in cereals, especially wheat, and in dried fruit. The first method is based on a solvent-extraction technique; in the second a continuous micro steam-distillation--solvent-extraction apparatus is used. The quantitative determination of ethylene dibromide is performed by electron-capture gas chromatography using a glass capillary column coated with CPwax 51. The absolute detection limit for EDB is 0.5 pg and recoveries of 82 and 98% resp. are obtained for samples with EDB added in the range of 10 to 50 micrograms/kg. 75 samples of cereal products and 19 samples of dried fruit have been analysed with the solvent extraction method. For 22 samples the micro steam-distillation-solvent-extraction technique has been used.