Effective isolation and comprehensive quantification of EPA16 PAHs, EU15+1 PAHs, 17 halogenated PAHs, and 18 oxygenated PAHs in soybean oil

Halogenated and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (XPAHs and OPAHs) have attracted increasing attention due to their considerable or higher toxicity than the corresponding parent PAHs. However, only a few kinds of PAH derivatives were monitored in vegetable oils due to the difficulties in analysis. This study aimed to establish analytical methods for 24 PAHs, 17 XPAHs and 18 OPAHs in soybean oil. The modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) pretreatment followed by GC-MS/MS or UPLC-MS/MS analysis was applied in this study. The results showed that the modified QuEChERS pretreatment could successfully extract 56 PAHs and derivatives in soybean oil, which saved organic solvent to a great extent. Simultaneous determination of EPA16 PAHs, EU15+1 PAHs, 17 XPAHs, and 12 OPAHs in soybean oil was achieved by GC-MS/MS analysis, which had recoveries of 61.33-111.61% and relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.35-19.89%. UPLC-MS/MS analysis obtained recoveries from 51.61% to 109.45% and RSDs from 1.31% to 15.05% for 14 OPAHs. As a supplement to GC-MS/MS, UPLC-MS/MS exhibited high sensitivity to ortho-OPAHs and benzo[a]pyrene–quinone isomers. Through GC-MS/MS and UPLC-MS/MS analyses, the concentrations of two XPAHs and ten OPAHs in soybean oils were firstly reported. In short, this study offered guidance for comprehensive analyses of PAHs, XPAHs, and OPAHs in vegetable oils.