Determination of azaarenes in oils using the LC-APCI-MS/MS technique: new environmental toxicant in food oils.

A novel method to determine of azaarenes in refined and cold-pressed vegetable oils and animal fats is reported. The method may be used to determine eight most important acridine derivatives (benz[a]acridine, dibenz[a,i]acridine, benz[c]acridine, dibenz[a,j]acridine, 7,9-dimethylbenz[c]acridine, dibenz[a,h]acridine, dibenz[a,c]acridine, dibenz[c,h]acridine) at a high sensitivity (LOQ in the 2-25 ng kg(-1) range), high analyte recovery rates (70.7-98.7%), sufficient linearity within the studied concentration range (r > 0.97). The method is fast, simple, and needs no expensive clean-up procedures to successfully determine the analytes. Azaarene concentration in the studied oil samples ranged from 2 to 250 ng kg(-1). Benz[a]acridine and dibenz[a,j]acridine were the compounds found most commonly and at the highest concentrations. The observed concentrations most probably reflected levels of environmental contamination of raw materials used to produce the analyzed oil/fat samples.