Analysis of Food Preservatives by GC/MS

Introduction

Food preservatives are used to prevent adverse changes and rotting of foods by suppressing the proliferation of microorganisms; they are used in accordance with the properties of the food to which they will be added. Many of the analytical methods used for analyzing food preservatives employ extraction of the compounds of interest by the steam distillation technique, followed by quantitative analysis using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Gas chromatography can also be used for measurement of many compounds used as food preservatives, including benzoic acid, sorbic acid, methyl p-hydroxybenzoate (PHBA methyl), ethyl p- hydroxybenzoate (PHBA ethyl), propyl p- hydroxybenzoate (PHBA propyl), and butyl p- hydroxybenzoate (PHBA butyl), and therefore, gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer (GC/MS) is an effective analysis technique for verifying the detection results obtained by HPLC. This Application News introduces an example of GC/MS analysis of six types of food preservatives.

January 29, 2010 GMT