Validated GC-MS method for determination of bisphenol a and its five analogues in dietary and nutritional supplements

Bisphenol A (BPA) and its analogues showing structural and functional similarity to BPA are commonly applied in various industrial applications and thus are becoming ubiquitous in the environment. At the same time there is increasing scientific evidence that exposure to these chemicals may lead to adverse health effects in human and wildlife. In recent years dietary and nutritional supplements dedicated for athletes have become more popular and are widely used even by people who are not professionals. This study presents the development, optimization and validation of an analytical procedure for determination of six bisphenol analogues in dietary supplements using gas chromatography - mass spectrometry technique. All validation parameters met the established acceptance criteria in accordance with international guidelines. The method was linear within the tested range of 50-1000 ng/mL, the limit of quantitation was set as the lowest calibration point 50 ng/mL, detection limit for each bisphenol was calculated as standard estimation error on the basis of the linearity testing and was in the range of 8.73-15.44 ng/mL. Method trueness, accuracy (within and between runs) and precision were also verified and were in the range of 78.8 - 100.4%, 94.3 - 103.1%, 0.5 - 9.6% respectively.The developed procedure was successfully applied for real samples analysis, namely for fifteen sport supplements of different composition and designated for various purposes, i.e. for increasing effectiveness, promoting muscle recovery and endurance, reducing tiredness and fatigue or increasing immune ability. For the majority of samples, bisphenols were either not detected or detected at the LOD level except bisphenol A which was quantitated in few samples at LOQ level or higher (in the range 0.852-2.892 ng/mg)The field of bisphenol analogues analytics has increased in recent years due to law regulations becoming more strict, thus the development of new analytical tools for quality control of dietary products is needed and fully justified.

Automated summary

This study developed an analytical procedure using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine six bisphenol analogues in dietary supplements. The method was validated and successfully applied to real samples, showing that most samples did not contain detectable levels of bisphenols except for bisphenol A in a few samples.