Simultaneous determination of red and yellow artificial food colourants and carotenoid pigments in food products

•Simultaneous determination of red and yellow artificial and natural pigments.•High resolution and sensitivity achieved by the developed mobile phase composition.•A two-phase solvent extraction used for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic pigments.•A sensitive and fast method for assessing the pigments in different food products.

A method for simultaneously determining four artificial food colourants [Red Nos. 2 (R2) and 40 (R40), Yellow Nos. 5 (Y5) and 6 (Y6)] and three carotenoids [lycopene, lutein, and β-carotene] was developed. They were successfully separated by the developed high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) method combined with a photo diode array detector. The detection limit (at signal to noise > 4) was from the lowest of 0.2 ng/mL for lutein to the highest of 50.0 ng/mL for R40. With a two-phase solvent and ultrasound-assisted extraction, the recoveries of the artificial and natural pigments in fifteen different types of food products were between 80.5–97.2% and 80.1–98.4%, respectively. This HPLC method with the ultrasound-assisted extraction protocol could be used as a sensitive and reliable analysis technique in simultaneously identifying and quantifying the reddish and yellowish pigments in different foods regardless of they are artificial food colourants or/and natural carotenoids.