Determination of Synthetic Colors in Meat Products Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Photodiode Array Detector

Synthetic colors are a substance, liquid or powder, which are added to foods to replace natural color lost during processing. A rapid and simple method for simultaneous determination of seven synthetic colors such as amaranth (E123), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), allura red AC (E129), red 2G (E128), carmoisine (E122), and erythrosine (E127) in meat products using the technique of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detector is described. The sample is extracted with mixture of methanol and ammonia (80:20v/v) in ultrasonic bath, and then the extract is filtered through a glass filter paper. Synthetic colors were determined by reversed-phase liquid chromatography using a C-18 column and a photodiode array detector. Synthetic colors were separated using HPLC/diode-array detector method on 250x4mm I.D LichroSphere RP-18endcapped column (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) with 5 mu m C-18 stationary phase, and the chromatograms were detected at 500nm. Acetate buffer (pH 4.8) and acetate buffer (pH 4.8) with acetonitrile (40/60v/v) were used as the mobile phase, and the flow rate was 1.0mLmin(-1). Satisfactory recoveries, ranging from 77.0% (erythrosine) to 99.5% (sunset yellow), were obtained. The method was useful over a wide concentration range of synthetic colors. Synthetic colors as low as 500mgkg(-1) in various meat products could be detected easily without any noticeable disadvantage. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification of individual synthetic dyes were 0.05mgkg(-1) and 0.1mgkg(-1), respectively.