Spectrophotometric determination of sorbic and benzoic acids in fruit juices by a net analyte signal-based method with selection of the wavelength range to avoid non-modelled interferences

Sorbic (SOR) and benzoic (BEN) acids were determined in fruit juice samples by using a net analyte signal-based methodology named HLA/GO (an hybrid linear analysis presented by Goicoechea and Olivieri) applied to spectroscopic signals. The calibration set was built with several fruit juices in order to take into account the natural variability and concentrations of both analytes covering the range usually present in commercial samples. Relative errors of prediction (REP %) of 3.6 and 5.2% were calculated for SOR and BEN respectively. Several figures of merit were calculated - sensitivity, selectivity, analytical sensitivity, and limit of detection. The method is quantitative, with reasonably good recoveries and excellent precision (less than 1%). Wavelength selection was applied, based on the concept of net analyte signal regression, and it allowed us to improve the method performance in samples containing non-modelled interferences, e.g. fruit juices different to those used to build the calibration model.