Determination of Changes in Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Levels in Hazelnut Oils After Storage

The oil of hazelnuts collected in 2022 (S1) and 2023 (S2) from a garden in the Piraziz district of Giresun Province was extracted and analyzed to measure the levels of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The highest total concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Σ16PAHs) was 8.483 ± 0.032 ng/kg in sample S1 and 6.075 ± 0.024 ng/kg in sample S2. The value of naphthalene, the most abundant PAH analyte, is higher than that of the other analytes. The total amount of PAHs indicates that 92.35% of sample S1 and 87.82% of sample S2 are naphthalene. Notably, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a known carcinogen, was not detected in either sample. The analysis of variance technique was employed to investigate the differences between the mean values of the oils. The results demonstrated that there were significant differences between the mean values.