Simultaneous determination of 16 synthetic colorants in hotpot condiment by high performance liquid chromatography

A simultaneous determination method for 16 synthetic colorants in hotpot condiment was developed by high performance liquid chromatography. The samples were successively extracted with 2 mol/L carbamide solution containing 5% ammonia (dissolved in methanol) and methanol-acetone solution, and then the target analytes could be divided into two groups named as lipid-soluble and water-soluble colorants by ethyl acetate-cyclohexane with liquid-liquid extraction. The lipid-soluble and water-soluble colorants were purified by gel permeation chromatography and solid phase extraction column packed with polyamide resin, respectively. The obtained two eluates were combined, concentrated, and separated by C18 column and determined by diode array detector. Good linear relationships between peak areas and the concentrations of the synthetic colorants were obtained in the range of 0.01-50.0 mg/L with correlation coefficients above 0.999 (n = 10). The limits of detection and quantitation were 1-3 and 10 μg/kg for 16 synthetic colorants, respectively. The average recoveries at the spiked levels of 5, 10, 20 and 50 μg/kg were in the range of 63.2-97.1% with relative standard deviations (n = 6) around 1.5-10.6%. This method is sensitive and reliable, and can be used to simultaneously determine 8 lipid-soluble and 8 water-soluble colorants in hotpot condiment.