determination of phthalate residues in different types of yogurt by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and estimation of yogurt-related intake of phthalates

Phthalates are potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals, found widely in the environment, and commonly used to make plastics softer and more flexible. little information is available about the presence of phthalates in yogurt products sold on the world market. this study aimed to develop a sensitive gc-ms method for the determination of selected phthalates in yogurt and residue levels in fruit yogurts together with the packaging materials and to estimate a yogurt-related exposure to phthalates in the turkish population. acetonitrile extraction followed by cleanup procedures using different adsorbents yielded relatively clean extracts. the presence as the percent of selected phthalates tested—dibutyl phthalate (dbp), diethylhexyl phthalate (dehp), dimethyl phthalate (dmp), diethyl phthalate (dep), di-n-octyl phthalate (dnop), and benzyl butyl phthalate (bbp)—were determined as 76, 70, 70, 54, 20, and 8% of the samples, respectively, for the phthalates, ranging from