Mineral oil contamination in dry food samples

Many food samples are contaminated with mineral oil coming from different sources. One possible source of contamination is the migration from cardboard packaging made of recycled fibers. Other sources of contamination with mineral oils can be related to the food production process.Mineral oils are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons. Mineral oil contamination can be classified as mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH), which are open chain paraffins, isoparaffins and cyclic naphthenes and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH), comprising mainly alkylated 1-3 ring compounds.Two PSE methods with different selectivity have been optimized for mineral oil extraction from dry foods. Method A: for extracting superficial contamination (MOH migrated from packaging into dry foods). Method B: for extracting total contamination present in dry foods, coming from different sources.