Liquid–liquid extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in four different edible oils from China

Concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in four edible oils collected in China (olive oil, peanut oil, oil collected from a kitchen range hood, and oil from a fried food stall). The PAHs were liquid–liquid extracted with n-hexane and N,N-dimethylformamide, then passed through a florisil solid phase extraction cartridge for clean-up, and submitted to GC–MS for determination. The mean concentration (n = 3) of light PAHs ranged from 0.82 μg/kg for chrysene (peanut oil sample) to 457.12 μg/kg for acenaphthylene (olive oil sample). For heavy PAHs, the mean concentration (n = 3) ranged from 0.68 μg/kg for benzo[a]pyrene in the peanut oil sample to 16.35 μg/kg for benzo[b]fluoranthene in the olive oil sample. Data analysis suggested that the concentrations of different PAHs could be used for quality discrimination of vegetable oils. A large-scale investigation on the level of PAHs in edible vegetable oils available in China is required.