The degradation of the antimicrobial agent chlorhexidine digluconate (CHDG) during storage or thermal process originates 4-chloroaniline (CA), a compound which is potentially carcinogenic. As the use of this sanitizing agent to decontaminate poultry carcasses in processing plants may represent a risk to the consumers, it is important to search for the presence of CA residues in the treated products. A method was developed to quantify CA in poultry tissues. After dichloromethane extraction, the extract was cleaned on a C18 cartridge and the quantitation was performed, without derivatization, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The mean recovery (89.2% - CV 9.9% ) and detection limit (1.8ng/g), were satisfactory for the purposes of the study. Analysis of samples treated with CHDG, before thermal processing, resulted in low CA levels, which probably originated from the treating solution. Frying and cooking in conventional oven resulted in relatively higher levels of CA, while cooking under pressure did not change the residual levels when compared to the raw samples. In view of these results and taking into consideration the toxic potential of CA, the data generated by this study should be considered in the case of use of chlorhexidine as poultry carcasses sanitizing agent.
4-chloroaniline; gas chcromatography; mass spectrometry; chlorhexidine digluconate; poultry; aromatic amines
