Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

Food Chem 2016 Jan 1;190:1064-8

Contemporary carbon content of bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate in butter.

Tong T, Ondov JM, Buchholz BA, VanDerveer MC

The fraction of naturally produced bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a ubiquitous plasticizer known to contaminate packaged foods, was determined for each of five 1.10kg samples of unsalted market butter by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). After extraction and concentration enrichment with liquid-liquid extraction, flash column chromatography, and preparative-scale high performance liquid chromatography, each sample provided approximately 250mug extracts of DEHP with carbon purity ranging from 92.5+/-1.2% (n=3, 1sigma) to 97.1+/-0.8% (n=3, 1sigma) as measured with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). After corrections for method blank DEHP, co-eluting compounds, and unidentified carbon, the mean fraction of naturally produced DEHP in butter was determined to be 0.16+/-0.12 (n=5, 1sigma). To our knowledge, this is the first report of the contemporary fraction of DEHP isolated from market butter in the U.S.