Isolation and identification of C16 [sixteen carbon] and C18 [eighteen carbon] fatty acid esters of chloropropanediol in adulterated spanish cooking oils [Adulterated with rapeseed; Spain]

The consumption of cooking oil adulterated with rapeseed oil containing 2% aniline is suspected of causing more than 20,000 illnesses and 300 deaths of people in the vicinity of Madrid, Spain since mid-1981. Fourteen samples of cooking oil, were received by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 1981. The samples were analyzed for industrial chemicals, pesticides, and trace metals. Some of these materials were found in the oils, but none at > 5 ppm. However, in three of the suspect oils, elevated levels of chlorine, up to 440 ppm, were found. Most of the toxicological investigation of the toxic oil syndrome in Spain has been focused on anilide contaminants. This report describes the isolation and identification of C16 and C18 fatty acid monoesters and diesters of chloropropanediol in the three samples of toxic Spanish cooking oil having the highest levels of chlorine (440, 39, and 28 ppm).