Abstract:

3-Chloro-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPD) is a kind of food contaminant that is recognized as carcinogenic for humans.
In this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the amount of 3-MCPD generated from
the reaction between triglyceride and sodium chloride under thermal conditions. Meanwhile, the mechanism of 3-MCPD
generation was explored. Results showed that 3-MCPD was rapidly generated with increasing triolein amount and reaction
temperature. High levels of NaCl inhibited the formation of 3-MCPD, which, on the contrary, was favored by higher levels
of triolein. Despite this, the amount of stearin had no obvious impact on the generation of 3-MCPD, which may be associated
with the difficulty in hydrolysis. However, the reaction time exhibited a relatively complicated impact on the generation of
3-MCPD. With increasing reaction time, the production of 3-MCPD from the reaction between triolein and NaCl showed an
initial increase, followed by a decrease and then an increase again, but exhibited an opposite trend when olein was replaced
by stearin. Therefore, the formation of 3-MCPD in the triolein model was higher than in the stearin model.

Key words: 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol, triglyceride, sodium chloride, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry