Abstract Parabens are widely used as preservatives in thousands of consumer’s products including, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, and foodstuffs. Concern in regards to the safety of parabens has been raised where parabens have been classified as “Endocrine disrupting compounds” with potential link to many tumor types. Despite their wide spread, the occurrence of parabens in foodstuffs available in the Saudi market has not been studied until now. In this work, an HPLC-PDA method was developed and validated for the screening of parabens’ residues in different categories of Ready-to-eat foodstuffs collected from the Saudi market. These categories include: cereals, meat, fish, dairy product, bean products, fruits, vegetables, cookies and snacks, beverages, condiments, and others. Chromatographic analysis of the selected parabens (Methyl paraben MeP, ethyl paraben EtP, propyl paraben PrP, butyl paraben BuP, and isobutyl paraben isoBuP) was performed on Symmetry® C-18 Colum (4.6 × 75 mm, 3.5 μm) with methanol/water (57:43, v/v) as the mobile phase and using simply methanol for sample preparation. The proposed method was fully validated with regards to linearity, limits of detection (LOD) and of quantitation (LOQ), accuracy and precision, extraction recovery, and specificity. Matrix-based calibration curves were linear in the range 0.025–500 μg/g (MeP, EtP), 0.05–500 μg/g (PrP), and 0.125–1250 μg/g (IsoBuP, BuP) with LOQ 0.025 μg/g for MeP, EtP, 0.05 μg/g for PrP, 0.125 μg/g for both BuP and isoBuP. The method was successfully applied for quantitative screening of the five parabens in different Ready-to-eat foodstuffs (n = 215) collected from the Saudi market. The total parabens content was determined and was related to the food category and to the packaging material. The highest paraben content was found in cereals and condiments. The type of the packaging material did not have a significant effect on the paraben content among all food categories. Moreover, the estimated daily intake of parabens among the Saudi adults was calculated and it was found to have an average of 2000 μg/kgbw/day.

中文翻译：

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使用带光电二极管阵列检测的高效液相色谱法对沙特市场上的即食食品中的对羟基苯甲酸酯进行定量筛查

摘要 对羟基苯甲酸酯被广泛用作数千种消费品中的防腐剂，包括化妆品、医药产品和食品。由于对羟基苯甲酸酯被归类为“内分泌干扰化合物”，与许多肿瘤类型有潜在联系，因此人们对对羟基苯甲酸酯的安全性提出了担忧。尽管对羟基苯甲酸酯的传播范围很广，但沙特市场上出售的食品中对羟基苯甲酸酯的存在情况直到现在还没有得到研究。在这项工作中，开发并验证了 HPLC-PDA 方法，用于筛选从沙特市场收集的不同类别即食食品中的对羟基苯甲酸酯残留。这些类别包括：谷物、肉类、鱼类、乳制品、豆制品、水果、蔬菜、饼干和零食、饮料、调味品等。所选对羟基苯甲酸酯（对羟基苯甲酸甲酯 MeP、对羟基苯甲酸乙酯 EtP、对羟基苯甲酸丙酯 PrP、对羟基苯甲酸丁酯 BuP 和对羟基苯甲酸异丁酯异丁酯）的色谱分析在 Symmetry® C-18 柱（4.6 × 75 mm，3.5 μm）上用甲醇/水(57:43, v/v) 作为流动相并使用简单的甲醇进行样品制备。所提出的方法在线性、检测限 (LOD) 和定量 (LOQ)、准确度和精密度、提取回收率和特异性方面得到了充分验证。基于基质的校准曲线在 0.025–500 μg/g（MeP、EtP）、0.05–500 μg/g（PrP）和 0.125–1250 μg/g（IsoBuP、BuP）范围内呈线性，LOQ 为 0.025 μg/g对于 MeP、EtP，PrP 为 0.05 μg/g，BuP 和 isoBuP 均为 0.125 μg/g。该方法已成功应用于从沙特市场收集的不同即食食品（n = 215）中的五种对羟基苯甲酸酯的定量筛选。确定了对羟基苯甲酸酯的总含量，并与食品类别和包装材料有关。在谷物和调味品中发现对羟基苯甲酸酯含量最高。在所有食品类别中，包装材料的类型对对羟基苯甲酸酯的含量没有显着影响。此外，计算了沙特成年人每日对羟基苯甲酸酯的估计摄入量，发现平均为 2000 微克/公斤体重/天。在所有食品类别中，包装材料的类型对对羟基苯甲酸酯的含量没有显着影响。此外，计算了沙特成年人每日对羟基苯甲酸酯的估计摄入量，发现平均为 2000 微克/公斤体重/天。在所有食品类别中，包装材料的类型对对羟基苯甲酸酯的含量没有显着影响。此外，计算了沙特成年人每日对羟基苯甲酸酯的估计摄入量，发现平均为 2000 微克/公斤体重/天。