A Novel Method for Determination of Furan Partition Coefficient in Water, Coffee and Soy Sauce by MHE/SIFT-MS

A novel method for the determination of the partition coefficient (K) of furan in water, coffee and soy sauce has been developed. Based on multiple headspace extraction/selected ion flow tube-mass spectrometry (MHE/SIFT-MS), the furan released from the liquid samples of interest in closed sample bottles was determined in a stepwise fashion. The effect of the phase ratio on the K values was also investigated. A theoretical model was derived to establish the relationship between the K value and the absolute furan or other volatile organic compound (VOC) concentration determined with MHE/SIFT-MS. The results show that the method has an excellent precision (RSD<6.1%) and good accuracy for the furan’s values in water, coffee and soy sauce, when compared with a direct method. The effect of the phase ratio on the K values was not linear. The method is simple and practical without the need for a VOC standard, and valuable for the determination of the VOC value in food, both in research studies and in food applications.