Abstract:

A method using high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) with ultraviolet detection was developed for the simultaneous determination of eight food additives, i.e. food blue 2, vanillin, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, food yellow 3, food red 10, amaranth and tartrazine. The running buffer system used was composed of phosphoric acid and borax, and the detection wavelength was set as 240 nm. Different sample preparation methods were used for the determination of three chosen matrices, including Smart orange-flavored beverage, fruit-flavored jelly and preserved date. Once-off injection was accomplished in 8 min. The linear range of the developed method was between 2.5μg/mL and 1000 μg/mL, with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.9986 to 0.9998. The average spike recoveries (n = 5) for these eight analytes varied from 85.2% to 100.3%, with a relative standard deviation of less than 6.98%. The limits of detection for them were between 0.25μg/mL and 10 μg/mL. Satisfactory results were obtained in determining the above matrices. This method has the benefits of convenient operation and rapidity.

Key words: food, additive, capillary electrophoresis, ultraviolet detector