Simultaneous determination of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, 2,3,4,6-tetrachloroanisole and pentachloroanisole in foods and packaging materials by high-resolution gas chromatography-multiple ion monitoring-mass spectrometry

A method has been developed for the determination of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, 2,3,4,6-tetrachloroanisole and pentachloroanisole in foods and packaging materials. Using combined high-resolution gas chromatography-multiple ion monitoring-mass spectrometry, and with the addition of 3,5-dimethyl-2,4,6-trichloroanisole as an internal standard, a series of calibration curves were prepared covering the concentration range 0.1 to 100 μg kg^?1. The detection limit, with quantitation by extrapolation only, was 0.01 μg kg^?1. The mean extraction efficiency of the combined distillation-extraction step was greater than 90% for each of the chloroanisoles analysed. The mean extraction efficiency for the internal standard was 105%. The reproducibility of the results obtained in the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry step was assessed and the coefficients of variation lay in the range from 2 to 11%.