Editor's Note

Bisphenol A (BPA) and its analogues are found in some types of food and dietary supplements packaging; there is increasing scientific evidence that exposure to these chemicals may lead to adverse health effects. There has been recent interest by various regulatory authorities in the established limits for bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics that contact food; the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently reevaluated the risks of BPA in food. In December 2021, the EFSA’s Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids identified an increase in a particular type of immune system cell involved in allergic lung inflammation as the most sensitive health outcome associated with BPA exposure, and also found reproductive and developmental effects associated with low levels of BPA. While there were existing methods for determining BPA content in foods that may result from contact with BPA containing packaging, a validated method for measuring BPA in sports supplements matrices was needed. Authors here report the development, optimization, and validation of an analytical procedure for determination of six bisphenol analogues in dietary supplements using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The developed procedure was successfully applied to fifteen sport supplements of different composition and with different claims. For the majority of samples, bisphenols were either not detected or detected at the LOD level, except bisphenol A which was quantitated in few samples at LOQ level or higher (in the range 0.852 - 2.892 ng/mg). 
September 2022
Microchemical Journal
Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) and its analogues showing structural and functional similarity to BPA are commonly applied in various industrial applications and thus are becoming ubiquitous in the environment. At the same time there is increasing scientific evidence that exposure to these chemicals may lead to adverse health effects in human and wildlife. In recent years dietary and nutritional supplements dedicated for athletes have become more popular and are widely used even by people who are not professionals. This study presents the development, optimization and validation of an analytical procedure for determination of six bisphenol analogues in dietary supplements using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry technique. All validation parameters met the established acceptance criteria in accordance with international guidelines. The method was linear within the tested range of 50–1000 ng/mL, the limit of quantitation was set as the lowest calibration point 50 ng/mL, detection limit for each bisphenol was calculated as standard estimation error on the basis of the linearity testing and was in the range of 8.73–15.44 ng/mL. Method trueness, accuracy (within and between runs) and precision were also verified and were in the range of 78.8 – 100.4%, 94.3 – 103.1%, 0.5 – 9.6% respectively.

The developed procedure was successfully applied for real samples analysis, namely for fifteen sport supplements of different composition and designated for various purposes, i.e. for increasing effectiveness, promoting muscle recovery and endurance, reducing tiredness and fatigue or increasing immune ability. For the majority of samples, bisphenols were either not detected or detected at the LOD level except bisphenol A which was quantitated in few samples at LOQ level or higher (in the range 0.852–2.892 ng/mg).

The field of bisphenol analogues analytics has increased in recent years due to law regulations becoming more strict, thus the development of new analytical tools for quality control of dietary products is needed and fully justified.
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