Detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in milk

Plastic packaging, while offering significant societal and economic advantages, also contributes to global pollution and presents health hazards. Additives such as alkylphenols (APs) can disrupt endocrine functions even at minimal concentrations. Consequently, it is essential validate analytical methods for their measurement in food products. This study successfully validated a chromatographic technique for quantifying alkylphenols (specifically mono-ethoxylate, 4-n-octylphenol, 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-n-octylphenol, and 4-n-nonylphenol) in milk. The analytical approach employs solid-liquid extraction (SLE) to mitigate matrix effects, followed by reverse phase chromatography combined with a Diode Array Detector (DAD) for the quantification of alkylphenols. Validation was conducted using accuracy profiling, a straightforward decision-making tool that assesses the total error of the method, including both bias and standard deviation. The validation results indicated no interfering peaks at the retention times of the APs, a strong linear correlation between the independent variables in the regression model and the dependent variable (with linear regression coefficients approximately equal to 1), excellent precision across various concentration levels for both intra-day and inter-day measurements, and systematic and random errors falling within the predefined acceptable limits (± 10%). The method's minimal environmental impact and simplicity of execution recommend it for routine analytical applications.