J Am Oil Chem Soc (2012) 89:389–400 Table 5 Contents of PAHs determined in the studied vegetable oil samples (mean value of two parallel determinations for the composite oil sample) 396 PAHs (Abbrev.) Naf Acy and Ace Fluo Phe Ant Flua Pyr B[a]A Chry B[b]F B[k]F B[a]P DB[ah]A B[ghi]P IndP Total PAHs (lg/kg) 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% ANcayfand Sample Poppy seed oil (lg/kg) 2.26 0.41 0.68 5.04 0.41 1.38 4.66 0.81 1.52 0.67 0.28 0.27 0.33 0.4 0.22 19.35 \LOQ 0.15 1.35 10.33 0.83 4.25 2.52 0.27 0.19 0.06 0.12 0.1 0.16 0.11 20.95 Hemp seed oil (lg/kg) Pumpkin seed oil (lg/kg) Linaire seed oil (lg/kg) Borage oil (lg/kg) Rapeseed oil (lg/kg) Sesame seed oil (lg/kg) Evening star oil (lg/kg) 3.98 0.88 3.19 13.6 0.7 7.32 3.91 0.44 0.67 0.28 0.42 0.35 0.4 0.06 37.16 8.87 0.73 1.01 4.71 10.14 2.49 2.44 0.27 0.41 0.23 0.12 0.19 \LOQ 0.12 0.14 31.87 1.46 0.78 1.55 8.5 0.71 4.31 3.65 0.78 0.97 0.88 0.49 0.39 0.57 0.32 0.09 25.46 3.86 1.06 0.26 2.09 9.85 \LOQ 0.64 \LOQ \LOQ 0.02 0.01 0.02 \LOQ 0.03 0.02 17.85 4.19 0.45 1.12 5.22 0.65 5.38 5.74 1.08 1.39 0.77 0.42 1.25 1.09 0.96 1.03 30.76 2.97 0.63 1.64 3.09 0.62 2.60 2.49 0.78 1.29 0.75 0.37 0.58 0.59 0.52 0.35 19.26 Ace Fluo Phe Ant Flua Pyr B[a]A Chry B[b]F B[k]F B[a]PDB[ah]AB[ghi]P IndP Fig. 2 Average proﬁle of PAHs determined in the studied cold- pressed vegetable oil samples fraction is shown in Fig. 3. The PAH contents found in the investigated samples were negligible as compared to the literature data. According to that data, a high concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vegetable oils is mainly attributable to environment contamination, but may also be attributed to the process of oil production [24–26]. Oil seeds are subjected to a drying process prior to oil extraction. If some membrane-less drying technique based on combustion gases as the source of heat is used, a high contaminations of vegetable oils with PAHs may result. Drying methods commonly used nowadays are based rather on ﬂuid beds that ensure a high quality of the ﬁnal product. 123 PAH contents found in the samples do not differ signiﬁ- cantly from literature data reported for common vegetable oils such as sesame oil, olive oil, or rapeseed oil [3, 26–30]. Low molecular PAHs are also reported as the most abun- dant compounds in vegetable oils. PCBs and PBDEs Recovery, recovery relative standard deviation, limits of quantiﬁcation and ionization parameters for the PBDE congeners are given in Table 3. PCB and PBDE contents found in the studied cold- pressed vegetable oil samples are given in Tables 6 and 7. Concentration of the marker PCBs (SUM6) in analyzed oil samples varied from 127 to 24,882 pg g-1 (the pump- kinseed oil sample and the borage oil sample, respectively). Lower chlorinated congeners dominated the non-dioxin- like PCB fraction. PCB 28, 52 and 101 were the most abundant congeners. Concentration of dioxin-like PCB congeners was gener- ally low in the analyzed vegetable oil samples. The highest one was found for PCB 118 congener, while the most toxic PCB 126 congener was not found in majority of the analyzed samples at a concentration above LOQ (i.e. C0.19 pg g-1). The concentrations of twelve dioxin-like congeners were within the 9.7–128 pg g-1 range (minimum for the hemp- seed oil sample, maximum for the borage oil sample).