Simultaneous determination of 9 preservatives in processed foods using high-performance liquid chromatography with photo diode array detector

This study was performed to develop an analytical method using Carrez reagents as the precipitant to effectively and easily remove proteins and lipids while pretreating samples for the simultaneous determination of preservatives, including dehydroacetic acid (DHA), sorbic acid (SA), benzoic acid (BA), methyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (MP), ethyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (EP), propyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (PP), isopropyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (IPP), butyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (BP), and isobutyl rho-hydroxybenzoate (IBP). The effective selectivity was determined by HPLC separation analysis for nine preservatives in the test solution, after removing interfering materials such as lipids and proteins. The method developed in this study showed excellent linearity at 0.999 or higher. The limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.09 to similar to 0.12 mg/L and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was similar to 0.280.37 mg/L. The results of the recovery test on processed foods, including pickles, cheeses, processed meat products, beverages, sauces, and emulsified foods showed DHA, SA, BA, MP, EP, IPP, PP, IBP, and BP at 90.9 similar to 107.7 %, 85.4 similar to 113.7 %, 90.7 similar to 111.6 %, 84.5 similar to 111.2 %, 81.3 similar to 110.9 %, 82.5 similar to 102.2 %, 81.1 similar to 110.0 %, 80.9 similar to 109.0 %, and 82.4 similar to 110.3 %, respectively. The probability of the simultaneous analytical method developed in this study as a quantitative method was confirmed for various processed foods.