Static Headspace Gas Chromatographic Method for Aldehyde Determination in Crackers

The aim of this work was to develop and validate static headspace gas chromatography with flame ionization detection method for determination of five aldehydes selected as markers for lipid oxidation, present in freshly baked and stored crackers with high fat content. Chromatographic conditions defined in this method allow the separation of propanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal and octanal within 15 min. Relative standard deviations (RSD) of the retention times for repeatability and intermediate precision for all compounds were less than 1.75 and 0.22 %, respectively. For the obtained peak areas, RSD for repeatability and intermediate precision were less than 3.86 and 4.32 %, respectively. Recovery was within the range of 60–99 %. Each analyte showed an excellent linear behaviour over the set concentration range, with correlation coefficient (R ² ) values above 0.99. Limits of quantification for propanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal and octanal were 0.10, 0.05, 0.08, 0.02 and 0.02 μg, respectively. The proposed method accomplishes the requirements for the method selectivity, precision, sensitivity, accuracy and linearity needed for determination of aldehydes in bakery products. Quantification of aldehydes was achieved for both freshly baked and stored crackers over a long period of time.