Simultaneous determination of nine types of phthalate residues in commercial milk products using HPLC-ESI-MS-MS

A multi-residue method was developed for the confirmation and quantitation of nine types of phthalates in milk using high-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. The samples were extracted with acetonitrile. The analytes were separated using a 0.1% formic acid-methanol system as the mobile phase, and a linear gradient elution program. Mass spectral acquisition was achieved by selectively monitoring the ions in electro-spray ionization mode. Qualitative analysis was based on the retention time and the mass spectrum results, and the quantity was carried out by comparison with the external standard. The mean recoveries for each analyte ranged from 65.2% to 98.3%, with relative standard deviations below 11.2%. The limits of detection were 5∼25 μg/kg, and the limits of quantitation were 17∼83 μg/kg, depending on the compounds. This method has the merits of convenient operation, high sensitivity, and good repeatability, making it an effective method for analysis of phthalates in milk. And the proposed analytical method has been applied to the analysis of phthalates presented in four commercial milk products. The main phthalate residues were DBP and DMP. And the amount of DBP was found to be more than 100 μg/kg in all this milk products.