Development of three stable isotope dilution assays for the quantitation of (E)-2-butenal (crotonaldehyde) in heat-processed edible fats and oils as well as in food.

Three stable isotope dilution assays (SIDAs) were developed for the quantitation of (E)-2-butenal (crotonaldehyde) in heat-processed edible fats and oils as well as in food using synthesized [¹³C₄]-crotonaldehyde as internal standard. First, a direct headspace GC-MS method, followed by two indirect methods on the basis of derivatization with either pentafluorophenylhydrazine (GC-MS) or 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (LC-MS/MS), was developed. All methods are also suitable for the quantitation of acrolein using the standard [¹³C₃]-acrolein. Applying these three methods on five different types of fats and oils varying in their fatty acid compositions revealed significantly varying crotonaldehyde concentrations for the different samples, but nearly identical quantitative data for all methods. Formed amounts of crotonaldehyde were dependent not only on the type of oil, e.g., 0.29-0.32 mg/kg of coconut oil or 33.9-34.4 mg/kg of linseed oil after heat-processing for 24 h at 180 °C, but also on the applied temperature and time. The results indicated that the concentration of formed crotonaldehyde seemed to be correlated with the amount of linolenic acid in the oils. Furthermore, the formation of crotonaldehyde was compared to that of its homologue acrolein, demonstrating that acrolein was always present in higher amounts in heat-processed oils, e.g., 12.3 mg of crotonaldehyde/kg of rapeseed oil in comparison to 23.4 mg of acrolein/kg after 24 h at 180 °C. Finally, crotonaldehyde was also quantitated in fried food, revealing concentrations from 12 to 25 μg/kg for potato chips and from 8 to 19 μg/kg for donuts, depending on the oil used.