Determination of styrene in olive oil by an automatic purge-and-trap system coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A new gas chromatographic method using an automatic purge-and-trap system coupled to a GC with mass selective detection to analyze styrene at the parts-per-trillions (ng kg−1) level is described. The method shows a good sensitivity and the detection limit is 10 ng kg−1 with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 4.7% for 164 ng kg−1 styrene in olive oil. This analytical method has been successfully applied to the analysis of styrene in extra-virgin olive oil from the European market.