ANALYSIS OF PHTHALATES IN BABY FOOD

22 samples of baby-milk, baby-food, mother's milk and cow's milk were analysed for their content of phthalates. After separating the fat by gel permeation chromatography the esters of the phthalic acid were sep arated by gas chromatography and identified and quantified by mass spe ctrometry: As internal standards Deuterium-labelled dibutyl- and dioct ylphthalate were added. Analysing for 10 different phthalates only DBP and DEHP were found in the samples with maximum-concentrations till 5 0 resp. 200 mu g/kg with a detection-limit of 10 mu g/kg food. The rel atively narrow range of the measured values point to the ubiquitous pr esence of these two components.