Detection of furan levels in select Chinese foods by solid phase microextraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method and dietary exposure estimation of furan in the Chinese population

•Furan analysis was established by a SPME–GC/MS method.•Furan content was detected in 191 Chinese foods.•The higher furan levels were detected in Chinese liquor, coffee, tea and pickle.•The estimated dietary furan intake was 0.093μg/kg bw/day in Chinese adults.•The estimated dietary furan intake was 2.83μg/kg in infants at 6months. In this study, a solid phase microextraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPMEGC/MS) method was developed to detection the levels of furan in 191 selected food products obtained from the Chinese markets. The performance of the analysis method was evaluated by some quality parameters such as limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), linearity, recovery, and runto-run (n=6) and day-to-day (n=18) precisions. The LOD and the LOQ of the method were 0.059ng/g and 0.175ng/g, respectively. The recovery of the method in fruit juice, canned jam, and infant formula ranged from 93.25% to 104.69%. The results from this study showed that furan was detected in almost all analyzed samples. Furan contents in different food samples varied greatly according to the raw materials and processing conditions. The higher contents of furan were detected in traditional Chinese liquor (61.63ng/g), coffee (71.36ng/g), tea (68.28ng/g) and pickle (85.63ng/g). The dietary intake of furan was estimated to be 0.093μg/kg b.w.t/day in adults and 0.333μg/kg b.w.t/day in infants at 6months. Further studies are needed to reveal other sources of dietary furan exposure.