What’s in Your Brew? Detecting Volatile PFAS with Headspace SPME GC/MS/MS

User Benefits

- Employing the highly sensitive and selective Shimadzu GCMS-TQ8040 NX triple quadrupole mass spectrometer allows for low limits of quantitation for volatile PFAS while minimizing matrix interferences. - Using the multifunctional AOC-6000 Plus autosampler, the automated SPME method and simplified sample preparation help to reduce operation errors in PFAS analysis. - The Shimadzu HS-SPME GC/MS/MS system can quantify volatile PFAS in beer matrices with minimal sample preparation. - HS-SPME GC/MS/MS is used as a complementary technique to LC/MS in providing a total solution for beverage safety.

Introduction

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of synthetic organic chemicals that are known for their persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity in the environment. The global concern surrounding PFAS pollution continues to grow, as many of their long-term effects on health and the environment are still not fully known. Some major human exposure routes to these harmful chemicals include inhalation of contaminated dust, breathing air containing PFAS, transfer to infants through breast milk, and ingestion of contaminated food, such as seafood, drinking water, and even commercial beverages. Beer is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide. It is estimated that humans consume more than 49.6 billion gallons of beer in just one year. Beer can be both alcoholic and non-alcoholic and varies in flavor, color, and aroma. Its complex composition, resulting from diverse ingredients and brewing processes, presents analytical challenges for detecting trace-level contaminants. As public awareness and regulatory attention increase, there is a growing need for reliable methods to screen beer for PFAS contamination and ensure product safety. Developing an effective analytical workflow for PFAS analysis in beer matrices is therefore essential to identify contaminated batches and prevent PFAS consumption. This study aims to establish a precise and accurate quantitation method to analyze volatile PFAS in beer. Given the diverse samples analyzed in this study, this method may also be applicable to other alcoholic, non-alcoholic, and carbonated beverages. This study presents a simple approach for analyzing volatile PFAS including fluorotelomer alcohols and acrylates in beer using Head-Space Solid Phase Microextraction-Triple Quadrupole Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME GC/MS/MS). This GC/MS method addresses volatile PFAS compounds that are impractical to analyze by LC/MS. The HS-SPME technique, with its minimal sample preparation procedure and fast workflow, offers additional benefits for volatile PFAS analysis in complex matrices. HS-SPME allows a pre-concentration step as well as higher selectivity compared to GC/MS liquid injection, thus allowing lower detection limits. While previous PFAS HS-SPME GC/MS/MS methods have been developed for simple matrices such as drinking and bottled water, 9-11 the complex composition of beer matrices requires additional isotopically labeled internal standards to effectively compensate for matrix effects.

January 14, 2026 GMT