Monitoring Structural Changes in Polysaccharides Using SEC-MALS

More and more regulations regarding PFAS are being implemented with action limits that continue to decrease. Having a harmonized method to accurately determine the PFAS content in food, as well as other matrices, is important to ensuring long-term detection and regulation. The solvent extraction of PFAS from these varied sample matrices can be challenging given the susceptibility to contamination and the low levels in which these compounds are present. This poster, presented at RAFA 2024, examines the PFAS extraction several different food samples as well as food packing matrices.

PFAS have been shown to cause health issues in humans, which means monitoring environmental solid samples, such as soil and tissue, is critical. This application note details the extraction of 40 spiked PFAS compounds from soil and tissue following EPA Method 1633. The automated extraction was less than 10 minutes per sample and yielded acceptable recoveries and RSDs without carryover in the system. The EDGE PFAS is an ideal option for laboratories that want to automate their PFAS extractions of solid samples.

Existing solvent extraction techniques are predominantly manual methods that are not rapid, simple, or efficient. The EDGE PFAS™, an automated solvent extraction system, provides an automated, sequential approach to PFAS extraction. This system performs an efficient extraction of PFAS compounds from challenging food and food packaging matrices in one simple process. Upon completion, the final extract is filtered and ready for any minimal cleanup required, as well as analysis. Excellent recovery with tight reproducibility has been found. The EDGE PFAS method offers a rapid, simple, and efficient solvent extraction solution for PFAS testing.

There are several established PFAS standard methods that specify the use of Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS); however, LC/MS is unable to analyze all PFAS compounds for various reasons. With its ability to analyze these compounds in complex matrices and simplified sample prep, Head-Space Solid Phase Microextraction GC/MS is pivotal as a complementary technique to LC/MS. Download this application for details on a method using GCMS for PFAS identification and quantitation.

This application describes a single laboratory validation study with a rapid extraction of low concentrations of 30 PFAS in shrimp using the QuEChERS technique followed by LC-MS/MS analysis. Results show data met all criteria of AOAC SMPR 2023.003 with high precision, excellent recovery, and low Limit of Quantification (LOQ).

This application news demonstrates the analysis of 46 PFAS and 25 surrogate compounds in solid matrices, such as plastic and foil consumer products, highlighting ongoing efforts to develop a new standardized method with ASTM on PFAS analysis in consumer products. Optimized conditions resulted in a method that eliminates the need for solid phase extraction, therefore significantly reducing cost and time associated with SPE sample preparation.