Development and application of a method for analysis of phthalates in ham sausages by solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry assay was developed and successfully applied for the determination of phthalates in ham sausage migrated from packaging film. The phthalates studied were dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BBP), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) , with dibutyl adipate (DBA) as internal standard. The sample pre-treatments included extraction with n-hexane, solvent evaporation and reconstitution with acetonitrile before and after solid-phase extraction (SPE). The extraction and cleaning up procedure was carried out with cartridges containing dimethyl butylamine groups, which showed extraction efficiencies over 87.3%. The calibration curves obtained were linear with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The method proved to be accurate and precise for the six phthalates used. It was successfully applied to a study on the migration of phthalates from packaging PVC film into ham sausage.