Analytical methods for the determination of bisphenol A in food

Food constitutes the primary route for human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide. The estrogenic properties of BPA, its wide dispersive use and the recent extensive literature describing low-dose BPA effects in animals, have raised concerns about its possible adverse effects on human health. A reliable health risk assessment of BPA relies basically on its unambiguous identification and accurate quantification in food, and the aim of the present review is to give an overview of the analytical methods reported so far for the determination of BPA in these matrices. Emphasis is placed on the main strategies developed for sample treatment, which usually consists of several laborious and time-consuming steps in order to achieve the required sensitivity and selectivity. Separation, identification and quantitation of BPA is today reliably made with mass spectrometric methods, namely liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and thus main attention is devoted to these techniques, but other methods using LC coupled to fluorescence or electrochemical detection, as well as immunochemical methods are also covered. Recent and expected future developments are discussed.