Screening determination of food additives using capillary electrophoresis coupled with contactless conductivity detection: A case study in Vietnam

•A simple and inexpensive approach for food control was developed.•The approach is based on CE instruments with contactless conductivity detection (C4D).•Food additives in different food matrices in Vietnam were determined.•Good agreement with the confirmation method (HPLC-PDA) was achieved.

In this study, a simple and inexpensive method for food analysis is discussed. The approach is based on capillary electrophoresis (CE) instruments with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D). Following the pilot deployment of in-house fabricated CE-C4D instruments in Vietnam, a number of food additives in different food matrices, including i) oxalate and citrate in instant noodles, beer and tea drinks, ii) acidulants in beverage, coffee, alcohol and vinegar samples, and iii) artificial sweeteners in jelly and drink samples, were determined using this method. Good agreement between results obtained with CE-C4D-instruments and those from the confirmation method (HPLC-PDA) was achieved.