Quantification of Six Phthalates and One Adipate in Luxembourgish Beer Using HS-SPME-GC/MS

A simple, low-cost and sensitive method for the determination of six phthalate acid esters (dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and dioctyl phthalate) and one adipate (bis(2-ethylhexyl) adipate) in beer has been developed using head-space solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS). SPME conditions were optimised, and optimum extraction parameters were found to be 95 A degrees C at 100 min, without addition of NaCl. Matrix interference was avoided by using a deuterated internal standard (ISTD). Limits of detection ranged from 0.006 to 0.590 mu g/L. The method showed good linearity with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.963 to 0.999 and satisfactory accuracy (74-101 %) and repeatability (3.56-27.86 %) values. The method was applied to 15 samples of beer from Luxembourgish breweries, stored in different containers (can, glass and aluminium bottle), and phthalates were detected in all samples with concentrations as high as 61.56 mu g/L for total phthalates. The exact origins of phthalates in beer were difficult to determine from the data in this study, though the brewing and bottling process seems to be a major contributor.