Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in processed chestnut products

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in processed chestnut products were determined by HPLC/FLD. The methodology involved procedures of sonication with water, extraction with hexane, and clean-up on a Sep-pak florisil cartridge. The PAH limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.012 to 0.382 μg/kg and from 0.042 to 1.273 μg/kg, respectively. The coefficients of variation for intra- and inter-day assays were 0.02-4.48% and 0.37-9.83%, respectively, and the accuracies were 81.95-125.44% and 79.89-116.53%, respectively. The overall recoveries for eight PAHs spiked into the processed chestnut products ranged from 87.83 to 100.56%. As a result, PAH contents were not detected in the processed chestnut products.