Food Chromatography Approaches for Mineral Oil Hydrocarbon Analysis
MOH contaminants in food pose safety risks, making reliable chromatographic detection essential.
Mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH), including mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH), have become an important focus in food safety due to their widespread presence in edible oils, dairy products, cereals, infant formula, chocolate, and packaged foods. These contaminants can enter food through environmental exposure, food processing equipment, and migration from packaging materials. Because MOH compounds consist of highly complex mixtures of structurally similar hydrocarbons, chromatographic analysis remains challenging, often producing unresolved “hump-shaped” profiles in liquid chromatography-gas chromatography coupled toflame ionization detection (LC–GC–FID) analysis.