Development and validation of a specific and sensitive gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of bisphenol A residues in a large set of food items

BPA-containing products are widely used in foodstuffs packaging as authorized within the European Union (UE no. 10/2011). Therefore, foods and beverages are in contact with BPA which can migrate from food contact material to foodstuffs. An accurate assessment of the exposure of the consumers to BPA is crucial for a non-ambiguous risk characterization. In this context, an efficient analytical method using gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode, was developed for the quantification of BPA in foodstuffs at very low levels (<0.5 μg kg−1). A standard operating procedure, based on the combination of two successive solid phase extractions (SPE), was developed for various liquid and solid foodstuffs. The use of 13C12-BPA as internal standard allowed accurate quantification of BPA by isotopic dilution. Control charts based on both blank and certified materials have been implemented to ensure analytical data quality. The developed analytical method has been validated according to in-house validation requirements. R2 was better than 0.9990 within the range [0-100 μg kg−1], the trueness was 4.2%. Repeatability and within-laboratory reproducibility ranged from 7.5% to 19.0% and 2.5% to 12.2%, respectively, at 0.5 and 5.0 μg kg−1 depending on the matrices tested for. The detection and quantification limits were 0.03 and 0.10 μg kg−1, respectively. The reporting limit was 0.35 μg kg−1, taking into account the mean of the laboratory background contamination. The global uncertainty was 22.2% at 95% confidence interval.