Simultaneous Determination of Four Preservatives in Foodstuffs by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

High concentration of preservatives in food may result in gastrointestinal disturbances whereby some patients suffering from asthma, rhinitis, or urticaria. The aim of this study is the introduction and optimization a new method for simultaneous determination of four preservatives (SB, PS, MP, PP) in foodstuff by high performance liquid chromatography.
Important factors in extraction, separation and determination process were optimized using the one variable at a time method. Figures of merit of the proposed method were evaluated. The amount of SB, PS, MP, PP in some food samples were determined using the proposed method.
The results showed that the obtained chromatogram of extract was free of significant interferences. The preservatives recoveries ranged from 88% to 110 %. Concentration of SB, PS, MP and PP in the 20studied samples ranges between N.D-639.9, N.D -214.5, N.D -579.8 and N.D -30.5 mg kg-1, respectively
The performance and reliability of proposed method as a simple, efficient and fast method for determination of SB, PS, MP, PP in the food samples was demonstrated.