Determination of phthalates in some milk products by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

This study was aimed to determine the presence and amount of the phthalates in yoghurt and ayran samples consumed in Turkey. For this purpose, 36 yoghurt and 24 ayran samples were used as materials in original packages collected from different markets in Turkey. The presence and the amounts of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), di-isononyl phthalate (DINP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) were determined by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The results of the analysis howed that DBP, DEHP and BBP were present in the yoghurt samples whereas DINP, DIDP and DNOP were found to be lower than the detectable limit 20 mu g/kg. The lowest and the highest mounts of DBP, DEHP and BBP in yoghurt samples are 6-229, 24-122, 22-63 mu g/kg respectively. The lowest and highest phthalate amounts in ayran samples are determined to be 38-59 mu g/kg for DBP and 26-81 mu g/kg for DEHP. According to the results, although DEHP and DBP were the main phthalate esters in all milk products that were analyzed, the phthalate values of the samples were found to be less than the limit values (P<0.001).