Rapid identification method for gamma-irradiated soybeans using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry coupled with a headspace solid-phase microextraction technique

This study evaluated the applicability of a rapid analytical method using a headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) technique to identify gamma-irradiated soybeans (0.1–5 kGy). From the partial least squares discriminant analysis used to discriminate between non-irradiated and irradiated soybean samples, 1,7-hexadecadiene was selected as the identifying marker. Response surface methodology experiments were used to determine the optimal HS-SPME extraction conditions including a carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane fiber, an extraction temperature of 98 °C, and an extraction time of 55 min. 1,7-hexdecadiene was detected in all samples irradiated at ≥ 0.1 kGy under the optimized HS-SPME-GC-MS conditions and the unique presence of the marker in a gamma-irradiated sample was verified by comparisons with heat, steam, microwave, sonication, and ultraviolet treatments. The comparisons of the identification properties for various conventional methods validated several ad...