A validated fast difference spectrophotometric method for 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) determination in corn syrups

Corn syrups, important ingredients used in food and beverage industries, often contain high levels of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF), a toxic contaminant. In this work, an in house validation of a difference spectrophotometric method for HMF analysis in corn syrups was developed using sophisticated statistical tools by the first time. The methodology showed excellent analytical performance with good selectivity, linearity (R2 = 99.9%, r > 0.99), accuracy and low limits (LOD = 0.10 mg L−1 and LOQ = 0.34 mg L−1). An excellent precision was confirmed by repeatability (RSD (%) = 0.30) and intermediate precision (RSD (%) = 0.36) estimates and by Horrat value (0.07). A detailed study of method precision using a nested design demonstrated that variation sources such as instruments, operators and time did not interfere in the variability of results within laboratory and consequently in its intermediate precision. The developed method is environmentally friendly, fast, cheap and easy to implement resulting in an attractive alternative for corn syrups quality control in industries and official laboratories.