# Assessment of Bioactive Surfactant Levels in Selected Cereal Products
## 3 Results
### Analysis of Real Samples
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Content of PFAS [ng/g]**} \\ \hline _Product_ & _Sample Number_ & _PFHxA_ & _PFOA_ \\ \hline  & 1 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.27 \\  & 2 & 0.09 & 0.19 \\  & 3 & 0.10 & 0.15 \\  & 4 & 0.11 & 0.12 \\  & 5 & 0.09 & 0.15 \\ _boltona bread_ & 6 & 0.09 & 0.13 \\  & 7 & 0.08 & 0.12 \\  & 8 & 0.01 & 0.14 \\  & 9 & 0.41 & 0.21 \\  & 10 & 0.44 & 0.23 \\  & range & **\textless{}LOQ–0.44** & **0.12–0.27** \\  & **(mean \(\pm\) SD)** & **(0.14 \(\pm\) 0.15)** & **(0.17 \(\pm\) 0.05)** \\  & 1 & 0.07 & 0.31 \\  & 2 & 0.13 & 0.29 \\  & 3 & 0.04 & 0.35 \\  & 4 & 0.06 & 0.24 \\  & 5 & 0.05 & 0.29 \\ _wholemeal bread_ & 6 & 0.12 & 0.30 \\  & 7 & 0.04 & 0.27 \\  & 8 & 0.05 & 0.23 \\  & 9 & 0.28 & 0.27 \\  & 10 & 0.07 & 0.25 \\  & range & **0.04–0.28** & **0.23–0.35** \\  & **(mean \(\pm\) SD)** & **(0.09 \(\pm\) 0.07)** & **(0.28 \(\pm\) 0.04)** \\  & 1 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\  & 2 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\  & 3 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.25 \\  & 4 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.18 \\  & 5 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.19 \\ _wheat roll_ & 6 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.15 \\  & 7 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.26 \\  & 8 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.15 \\  & 9 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.18 \\  & range & **0.15–0.26** \\  & **(mean \(\pm\) SD)** & - & **(0.19 \(\pm\) 0.04)** \\  & 1 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.25 \\  & 2 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.19 \\ _graham roll_ & 3 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\  & 4 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.17 \\  & 5 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\  & range & **0.16–0.25** \\  & **(mean \(\pm\) SD)** & - & **(0.19 \(\pm\) 0.04)** \\  & 1 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.25 \\  & 2 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.19 \\  & 3 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\ _graham roll_ & 4 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.17 \\  & 5 & \textless{}LOQ & 0.16 \\  & range & **0.16–0.25** \\  & **(mean \(\pm\) SD)** & - & **(0.19 \(\pm\) 0.04)** \\  & & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: PFAS content in baked cereal-based products—bread and rolls. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to evaluate the relative proportions of PFAS concentrations in cereal-based products and to identify groups of samples that share similar concentration compositions. The HCA based on Euclidean distance and the Ward linkage algorithm was applied to cluster cereal product quality data. The results of cluster analysis are shown in Figure 2. Based on the visual observation of the dendrogram, cereal product samples may be classified into two groups, representing high homogeneity within the clusters and high heterogeneity between the clusters. Group 1 is represented by 65 products and contributes 63% of analyzed samples, while group 2 accounts only for 27% of analyzed samples (24 products). The mean concentrations of individual PFAS assessed for each cluster are summarized in Table 5. In respect of cluster 2, cluster 1 is characterized by higher mean PFBA and PFOS concentrations, which are 16.21 ng/g and 0.25 ng/g, respectively. In the case of cluster 2, only PFOA and PFHxA had higher mean concentrations, but their values did not exceed the level of 0.25 ng/g calculated for PFOA. In general, products included in cluster 1 are more contaminated than those belonging to cluster 2, especially in terms of PFBA contamination. Table S2 (Supplementary Materials) shows the classification of analyzed products to a given cluster/group. Figure 1: (**A**) The average concentration of the sum of individual PFASs in flours and brans; (**B**) The other analyzed products.