PFAS analysis at low ppt-level in fruits and vegetables

Per and polyfluorinated compounds (PFAS) are a group of man-made substances that recently received a lot of attention. Because many PFAS are already harmful at low concentrations (several ng/week), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) set a safety threshold for the most relevant PFAS that accumulate in the body. The threshold: a group tolerable weekly intake for PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFOS (also called the EFSA 4) of 4.4 ng/kg body weight per week, has large implications on the required detection limits of PFAS in food matrices. Also, EFSA reports a lack of data on PFAS in fruits and vegetables, which are an important part of the human diet. Current methodologies often lack sensitivity. In this current research, we attempted to push the boundaries of our clean-up method and LC-MS/MS. This study aimed to develop a method for the analysis of 16 PFAS in fruit and vegetables, down to the low-ppt level, especially the EFSA 4 PFAS. The developed method was applied in a large-scale study on fruits and vegetables (n=866) from kitchen gardens in the vicinity of two large fluorochemical production plants (FPP) in the Netherlands.