This European Standard specifies a highly efficient method for the determination of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons (from C10 to C50) in vegetable fats and oils and foodstuff on basis of vegetable oils for which it has been interlaboratory validated, with online-HPLC-GC-FID [1], [2] and [3]. This standard is not intended to be applied to other matrices.
The method can be used for the analysis of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and/or mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH).
The method has been tested in an interlaboratory study via the analysis of both naturally contaminated and spiked vegetable oil samples and mayonnaise and margarine samples, ranging from 4 mg/kg to 197 mg/kg for MOSH, and from 2 mg/kg to 51 mg/kg for MOAH.
According to the results of the interlaboratory studies, the method has been proven suitable for MOSH- and MOAH mass concentrations each above 10 mg/kg.
In case of suspected interferences from natural sources, the mineral origin of the MOSH and MOAH fraction can be verified by examination of the pattern by GC-MS.