Determination of furfural and hydroxymethyl furfural from baby formula using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography and method optimization by response surface methodology

A simple, rapid and efficient method was developed using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for extraction and determination of furfural (F) and hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) in baby formula. The effects of different variables on the extraction efficiency such as the volume of extraction and disperser solvents, pH and salt effect were studied and optimized simultaneously using (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). Under optimum conditions, a mixture of ethanol (disperser solvent) and 1-octanol (extraction solvent) was rapidly injected in to the sample solution (after adding 2 g salt and adjusting pH to 6.5). Limit of detection for F and HMF were 0.7 and 1.8 ng g(-1), respectively. The inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD%) were 4.9 for HMF and 3.9 for F and also inter-day RSD% were in the range of 5.2-8%. The results showed that DLLME-HPLC is a very fast, simple, sensitive and accurate analytical method for the determination of F and HMF in baby formulas. Finally, The ability of the proposed method to determine F and HMF in different baby formulas in Iran was studied and suitable result was obtained. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.