Abstract:A method was established for determining the di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate in foods containing fats and oil, through acetonitrile extraction, PSA/silica composite solid phase extraction column purification, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. The samples were subjected to ultrasound-assisted extraction with acetonitrile multiple times and purified by PSA/silica composite solid phase extraction column, concentrated by a rotary evaporator, and separated by HP-5MS UI quartz capillary chromatographic column, before the analysis of di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate in the samples by the external standard method under the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The experimental results show that a good linear relationship was found in the di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate concentration range of 0.125~2.50 μg/mL, with correlation coefficients higher than 0.99, limit of detection as 0.20 mg/kg, and the limit of quantitation as 0.50 mg/kg. When the spiked levels were 0.50, 1.00 and 5.00 mg/kg, the mean recoveries of di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate in foods containing fats and oil ranged between 78.11% and 104.53% with the relative standard deviations (RSD, n=6) not higher than 7.21%. This method is simple, rapid and sensitive, which is suitable for determining the di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate in foods containing fats and oil. Among the 40 fat/oil-containing food samples analyzed by the established method, 10 samples involving sesame paste, chili oil, vegetable oil and meat products were found to contain di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (concentration: 0.64 mg/kg~1586.34 mg/kg), in particular, some positive samples had a high content, thereby deserving high attention
