Analytical studies on the determinationof some organic pollutants and possibility of their removal from pollutedfood

Abstract

The aim of present study was to suggest method of extraction and analysis of the studied organic pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)) with assessment of their contamination levels in some Egyptian food products and to investigate the possibility of their elimination or suppression using natural food additives. In the first part of this study, a full factorial 23 was employed in order to optimize the extraction conditions of the studied PAHs. Two comparative extraction methods were chosen for PAHs extraction including ultra-sonication assisted extraction and quechers extraction. Application of optimized extraction method on commercial food samples using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (GC/MS MS) for quantification. The second part was also assessed the human health hazards effects of studied PAHs at different age categories. The third and fourth parts of this study included treatment of the investigated PAHs polluted food using natural food additives. Different factors were optimized to get acceptable removal efficiency. Characterization and bioactive screening of the extracted natural food additives were also carried out. The obtained data revealed that PAHs levels in the analyzed food samples were reached to 8.3 µg/g for dairy based products and 387 ng/g for potato chips. The removal efficiency of PAHs using natural food additives enhanced to be 96% for potato chips and 80% for milk samples.