Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Sample Preparation and Analysis in Beverages: A Review

The monitoring of food contaminants is of interests to both food regulatory bodies and the consumers. This literature review covers polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with regard to their background, sources of exposures, and occurrence in food and environment as well as health hazards. Furthermore, analytical methods focusing on the analysis of PAHs in tea, coffee, milk, and alcoholic samples for the last 16 years are presented. Numerous experimental methods have been developed aiming to obtain better limits of detections (LODs) and percent recoveries as well as to reduce solvent consumption and laborious work. These include information such as the selected PAHs analyzed, food matrix of PAHs, methods of extraction, cleanup procedure, LOD, limits of quantitation (LOQ), and percent recovery. For the analysis of tea, coffee, milk, and alcoholic samples, a majority of the research papers focused on the 16 US Environmental Protection Agency PAHs, while PAH4, PAH8, and methylated PAHs were also of interests. Extraction methods range from the classic Soxhlet extraction and liquid–liquid extraction to newer methods such as QuEChERS, dispersive solid-phase microextraction, and magnetic solid-phase extraction. The cleanup methods involved mainly the use of column chromatography and SPE filled with either silica or Florisil adsorbents. Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry or fluorescence detectors are the main analytical instruments used. A majority of the selected combined methods used are able to achieve LODs and percent recoveries in the ranges of 0.01–5 ug/kg and 70–110%, respectively, for the analysis of tea, coffee, milk, and alcoholic samples.