Rapid and Improved Determination of Furan in Baby Foods and Infant Formulas by Headspace GC/MS

Abstract

Furan is a 5-membered ring compound with high volatility. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently published a report on the occurrence of furan in a large number of thermally processed foods. However, the FDA's analytical method, using standard curve addition, is not suitable for high-throughput routine laboratory operations. We developed a rapid and improved method for determination of furan in foods by headspace GC/MS. Quantification was achieved by using an internal standard of d 4 -furan and an external calibration curve of furan normalized against the internal standard. The incubation temperature for equilibration was set at 60῍ to avoid the formation of furan during analysis. The levels of furan in baby foods and infant formulas were determined with this method. Validation data showed good precision and accuracy. The LOD and LOQ were 0.2ῌ0.5 ng/g and 0.5ῌ2 ng/g for various food matrixes, respectively. The level of furan detected was in the range of 1.4 to 90 ng/g in baby foods and in the range of non-detectable to 36 ng/g in infant formulas.Key words: furan; headspace; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; baby food; infant formula Introduction Furan (C 4 H 4 O) is a colorless, volatile (boiling point 31῍) and lipophilic organic compound 1) . It is considered to be a hazardous chemical and is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as possibly carcinogenic to humans (group 2B; IARC) 2) . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)῍ 1 has recently published a report on the occurrence of furan in a large number of thermally processed foods, such as canned and jarred foods, including baby foods and infant formulas. The FDA analyzed approximately 340 food samples and found furan levels ranging from non detectable to approximately 170 ng/g. The Swiss Federal O$ce of Public Health has presented an analytical method for the determination of furan in foodstu#s and used it to measure furan levels in a variety of foods on the Swiss market 3) . The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) 4) has recently published a report on furan, in which they concluded that a more detailed risk assessment was required.The primary source of furan in food was considered to be thermal degradation of carbohydrates, such as glucose, lactose and fructose 5) . Perez-Locas and Yaylayan suggested that ascorbic acid had the highest potential to produce furan on thermal treatment, followed by some sugar/amino acids mixtures 6) . Health Canada has recently reported the formation of furan via the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids at elevated temperatures, and from the decomposition of ascorbic acid derivatives 7) . Fan has recently studied the formation of furan from sugars, ascorbic acid and organic acids under the influence of ionizing radiation and thermal treatments 8) . It was reported that the pH and concentration of sugars and ascorbic acid solution profoundly influenced furan formation during irradiation or thermal treatment.As furan is a small, volatile molecule, headspace gas chrom...

Risk assessment of furan in commercially jarred baby foods, including insights into its occurrence and formation in freshly home-cooked foods for infants and young children

“…Preparations containing only fruits had the lowest furan content and the majority of samples in this group were below the detection limit. Our results correspond well to the ranges reported in previous surveys in Europe (Heppner and Schlatter 2007), Japan (Yoshida et al 2007), Switzerland (Zoller et al 2007) and the USA (Morehouse et al 2008).…”

“…Taking into consideration a consumption of 234 g per day of canned baby food (Kersting et al 1998), Heppner andSchlatter (2007) assumed an exposure range of 50.03-3.5 mg kg À1 body weight (bw) day À1 , assuming a body weight of 7.5 kg for a 6-month-old baby. Yoshida et al (2007) reported levels of furan in a similar range of 1.4-90 mg kg À1 in 15 baby foods from the Japanese market. Most recently, the US FDA reported furan in ready-to-eat baby foods from the USA in the range 2.5-112 mg kg À1 (Morehouse et al 2008).…”

Update of results on the monitoring of furan levels in food

“…In the present survey, the mean furan content in infant formulae was 3 µg/kg, which was lower than average results previously reported of 12 µg/kg (Crews and Castle, 2007) but within the range reported by Yoshida et al(2007). In the present survey, the mean furan content in infant formulae was 3 µg/kg, which was lower than average results previously reported of 12 µg/kg (Crews and Castle, 2007) but within the range reported by Yoshida et al(2007).…”

Furan formation from vitamin C in a starch-based model system: Influence of the reaction conditions

“…To be able to define better the efficiency of furan formation in food, a more realistic model system should be studied. Among numerous food products contaminated with furan, jarred baby foods are of particular concern due to the higher vulnerability of babies and infants to toxicants in general, combined with their high food intake to body weight ratio (Yoshida, Isagawa, Kibuna, Hamano-Nagaoka, & Maitani, 2007). Therefore, to mimic furan formation in baby foods, a simple model system based on starch was developed.…”