Assessment of a New GC-MS/MS System for the Confirmatory Measurement of PCDD/Fs and (N)DL-PCBs in Food under EU Regulation

Polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychloro-dibenzofurans (PCDFs), dioxin-like
(DL), and non dioxin-like (NDL) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are currently regulated in
food and feed within the European territory (EU 2017/644-771). The confirmatory methods
of analysis for checking compliance with maximum levels (MLs) for these involve either the
historically-established GC-magnetic sector high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) and,
more recently, GC-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry operating in tandem mode (GC-QQQMS/MS).
In this study, the performance of a novel triple quadrupole GC-QQQMS/MS system equipped with a
programable temperature vaporization (PTV) injector was evaluated for the analysis of regulated
PCDD/Fs and PCBs in food and feed. The MS analyzer was equipped with a titanium ionization
chamber and a new short collision cell capable to accumulate and eject ions by means of very narrow
pulses that allow to minimize the noise and to adapt accumulation times for sensitive multiple
reaction monitoring (MRM). The analytical capability of the system was confronted by the strict
requirements (selectivity, reproducibility, linearity, quant/qual MRM transitions, accuracy, robustness)
set by the EU Regulation for a range of standards, quality control (QC) and food/feed samples. In this
respect, the approach showed high precision (1.9–15% relative standard deviation (RSD) at low pg/µL)
and accuracy (>80%, except for one hexa-CDD). The quantitative results were also compared to the
most used GC-HRMS. In this case, comparable results in terms of single congener concentration
basis and total toxic equivalent (TEQ) basis for PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs were obtained for the QC
samples analyzed.