Determination of formaldehyde in beer

Abstract

A method for the determination of formaldehyde in commercial beers by GC/MS was developed. Formaldehyde in beers was derivatized by O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl) hydroxylamine, and the derivative was extracted with n-hexane by solvent extraction. Then, formaldehyde was determined by GC/MS, as formaldoxime. Satisfying results were obtained using intermediate polar CP-SIL 24CB capillary column, and decafluorobiphenyl as an internal standard. The detection and quantitation limits were 0.009μg/mL and 0.030μg/mL, respectively. We examined 23 samples of beers using the proposed method. As a result, 0.032μg/mL of formaldehyde was detected in one sample and the trace amount was detected in 7 samples. The amount of formaldehyde in beers detected in this study was much lower than the regulation values of the tap water of Japan and WHO, suggesting that the formaldehyde in beer examined in this study doesn't any influence on the human health.