Analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls in food products

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly persistent, lipophilic and bioaccumulative toxic industrial contaminants formed as a result of human activities. Most of its uses have been banned since the late 1970s. This article describes the importance of matrix pretreatment, sample extraction, clean-up and fractionation of PCBs from food matrices. It reviews detection techniques, such as cGC, for these congeners and their enantiomers, using different columns and detectors, with emphasis on MS methods, together with the limitations of these techniques. It also discusses other methods, such as MEKC, immunoassays and bioassays, as applied to the detection of PCBs in foods. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.