Determination of ethylene chlorhydrin as marker of spices fumigation with ethylene oxide

Ethylene oxide (EO) is a gas used to sterilize spices, drugs, packaging materials, medical devices, polyester fibers, plastics and synthetic rubber. When the aeration step foreseen for spices is not properly carried out, residues of EO and its deriv. ethylene chlorohydrin (ECH), produced by reaction with chlorine ions always present in the matrix, can be found in these products. In this way, the reactivity of EO with chlorides in spices provides a suitable marker to confirm the use of EO for fumigation. The ECH derived from spontaneous transformation during the storage and forcibly obtained during the first step of the extn. can be evaluated in spices by a simple GC/MS anal. method, without derivatization. It has been proven that the EO mol. is carcinogenic for humans; it has been classified as a category 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): ECH, as EO, is a mutagenic substance. This paper shows the results concerning 25 pepper samples purchased on the Italian market. The limit of detection for ECH was assumed to be 20 ?g/kg (LOD) and was calcd. by spiking a matrix pepper that had not been treated with EO. The limit of quantitation was assumed to be 100 ?g/kg (LOQ), i.e. 5 times LOD. The reliability of the method was verified by recovery and repeatability tests. Recovery av. values are 60-70% (CV% = 9.6-5.5) for the concn. range 100-500 ?g/kg. Only 56% of pepper samples analyzed did not contain ECH at detectable levels, and only 24% of pepper samples contained ECH at levels lower than LOQ. Three samples had a content ranging between 0.2 and 3.3 mg/kg and two samples showed a content of ECH higher than 5 mg/kg.