Background and Objectives: The addition of plasticizers (mainly phthalates and adipates) makes plastic flexible and popular for packaging, storing and preserving food, water, and so on. The most widely used plasticizer in food contact applications is di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) though being suspected to have carcinogenic and estrogenic properties. The aim of this study is application of magnetic solid phase extraction as new absorbent for determination of DEHP in water samples by gas chromatography (GC).

Materials and Methods: Important factors in extraction, separation and determination processes were optimized using the one-variable-at-a-time method. For optimization, all tests were performed two times. Figures of merit of the proposed method were evaluated. The amount of DEHP in some water samples was determined using the proposed method.

Results: The results showed that the obtained chromatogram of extract was free of significant interference. The preservatives’ recoveries ranged from 91.6% to 102.2%. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.1 mg kg^-1 and 0.3 µg L^-1, respectively. Concentration of DEHP in the studied samples was in the range of N.D-2.3 µg L^-1.

Conclusions: The acceptable performance and reliability of the proposed method were demonstrated. Temperature and time were fount as the most effective parameters in migration of DEHP.

Keywords: Di-ethylhexyl phthalate, Magnetic solid phase extraction, Migration, Gas chromatography