Rapid determination of chloropropanol in edible vegetable oil by the combination of a simple fluorescence sensor and chemometrics.

A simple and novel fluorescence sensor has been developed for the rapid determination of four typical chloropropanols, including 1,3-dichloropropanol (1,3-DCP), 2,3-dichloropropanol (2,3-DCP), 2-monochloropropanediol (2-MCPD), and 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD). The three-dimensional synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy was selected according to its high sensitivity to metalloporphyrin-based fluorescence sensors and their complexes. Detection and determination of chloropropanol analytes were carried out in the range of 1 ng to 1 mg. The three-dimensional synchronous fluorescence profile for each chloropropanol analyte was recorded by the fluorescence spectrum of the fluorescence sensor after reacting with the chloropropanol analyte. All three-dimensional data representing the chloropropanol content were decomposed and extracted using the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) algorithm. Then, PARAFAC loading scores were used to discriminate and quantify four typical chloropropanol contents. Finally, the standard addition curves yielded a good regression result with a correlation coefficient of 0.9854. This study has developed a simple novel fluorescence method for the rapid detection and quantification of chloropropanols in edible vegetable oils, as well as in other food products containing edible vegetable oil.