Abstract: In recent years, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been repeatedly detected in edible oil, and food safety problems caused by PAHs have attracted social attention. PAHs, a group of complex organic pollutants with high lipophilicity, are teratogenic and carcinogenic, and PAHs residues tend to appear during the production, processing, and storage of edible oils, causing harm to people’s health. Therefore, the development of rapid and accurate methods to detect PAHs in edible oil has important theoretical and practical significance for understanding and dealing with the hazards of PAHs residues in edible oil. Sample pretreatment is an important step for the detection of PAHs in edible oil. In this review, we first summarize the status of PAHs residues in edible oils. Next, we focus on reviewing the sample pretreatment methods commonly used for detecting PAHs in edible oils in recent years, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of different pretreatment methods. Finally, we discuss the future directions for the development of PAHs detection methods. This review will hopefully contribute to the development of more efficient sample pretreatment methods for the detection of PAHs in edible oils.

Key words: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; edible oil; pretreatment methods