Determination of Mineral Oil Contamination in Foodstuff, Cosmetics and Packaging Materials with the CHRONECT Workstation MOSH/MOAH

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 Introduction and pre-purified with aluminum oxide depending on their origin and type [2]. Undesirable mineral oil residues are found in numerous products. These substances can be divided into two classes: Saturated (MOSH mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons) and aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH - mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons). While the first substance class accumulates in the human body, the second compound class is suspected of containing carcinogenic substances. Substance classes such as POSH (polyolefin oligomeric saturated hydrocarbons) or PAO...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 Optional extension for aluminum oxide purification: additional Agilent Infinity II 1260 HPLC pump HPLC valve Aluminum oxide HPLC column Optional extension for MOSH depletion in cosmetics: HPLC valve Depletion HPLC column Optional extension for fraction collection: Fract & Collect collection tool Alternatively, the Nexera LC-40B XR and the Nexis GC-2030 from Shimadzu can be used. We reserve the right to make changes in the device configuration. Sample preparation All samples must be prepared before the actual measurement. Depending on the sample...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 [AU] 1.0 Figure 1: HPLC-UV chromatogram of a standard injection (wavelength: 230 nm). The marked fractions (450 µL each) are transferred to the gas chromatograph in large volumes without loss. [mV] Cycy (ISTD) Figure 2: MOSH and MOAH GC-FID chromatograms of the injection from Figure 1. Both fractions were measured simultaneously. C11 and 5B are quantitatively recovered. Following DIN EN 16995:2017-08, spiked sunflower oil was diluted in n-hexane and measured directly. Figure 3 shows a typical MOSH/MOAH chromatogram. Due to the high number of isomers,...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 Figure 3: MOSH LC-GC-FID chromatogram of the injection of a standard with the components C 10, C11, C13, C16, C20, C24, C25, C35, C40 and C50. All alkanes have comparable peak heights and areas. [mV] C:\Clarity\LC-GC_GC\Data\MKW\20150810\2B_MOSH - FID biogenic n-alkanes biogenic olefins Voltage Figure 4: MOSH (top) and MOAH (bottom) GC-FID chromatograms of spiked sunflower oil. The contamination levels (integral of the marked areas) are 40 and 14 mg/kg, respectively. As can also be seen in Figure 4, besides the obvious MOSH/MOAH humps, numerous...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 On the other hand, there are olefinic hydrocarbons, such as β-carotenes, squalene or refining products of sitosterol, which mainly affect the quantification of MOAH. The MOSH fraction is completely free of biogenic n-alkanes. Thus, even lower MOSH amounts can be quantified. The same applies to the MOAH fraction, which is largely free of olefins. Here, it must be taken into account that depending on the sample matrix no quantitative epoxidation might be possible. Both purification techniques are mandatory for a successful and reliable detection...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 Carotinoids Sterenes Figure 6: MOAH fraction: LC-GC-FID (top) and LC-GCxGC-MS chromatograms (bottom) of palm oil after epoxidation. The mass spectra clearly show the presence of biogenic substances. Thus, the observed hump in the FID chromatogram is at least not entirely attributable to the presence of MOAH. Cosmetics In the case of cosmetic samples based on mineral oil, which often contain only traces of MOAH, a further challenge in MOSH/MOAH analysis becomes apparent. Due to the natural presence of MOSH, it cannot be excluded with certainty that...

Determination of MOSH/MOAH Application note 1801 The direct coupling to other analytical techniques, such as GCxGC or NMR, further increases the reliability of quantification. The determination limits of 10 mg/kg specified in DIN EN 16995:2017-08 can be safely achieved with this system. With additional enrichment techniques, as described in the DGF standard method C-VI 22 (20), named by the BfR and other authors, even lower limits below 1 mg/kg can be achieved [2, 4, 8-10]. European Food Safety Authority, Scientific opinion on mineral oil hydrocarbons in food, EFSA J. 10(6) (2012) 2704. Messung...