Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

Food Addit Contam Part A 2017 Mar;34(3):356-70

Occurrence of 3-monochloropropanediol esters and glycidyl esters in commercial infant formulas in the United States.

Leigh J, MacMahon S

This work presents occurrence data for fatty acid esters of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPD) and glycidol in 98 infant formula samples purchased in the United States. These contaminants, which result from the industrial processing of edible oils, are considered potentially carcinogenic and/or genotoxic, making their presence in refined oils and foods containing these oils a potential health risk. Because refined oils serve as the primary fat source in infant formula, particular attention has focused on developing methodology to extract and quantify MCPD and glycidyl esters in infant formula in order to produce occurrence data for risk assessment purposes. In this study, occurrence data for 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters were produced using a novel procedure for extracting the fat from infant formula and a LC-MS/MS method for analyzing the fat extracts for the intact esters. The 98 infant formula samples were produced by seven different manufacturers, five of which use palm oil and/or palm olein in their formulations. In formulas containing palm oil and/or palm olein as an ingredient (73 formulas), concentrations for bound 3-MCPD and glycidol ranged from 0.021 - 0.92 mg kg-1 (ppm) and