A Comparative Study of Advanced Stationary Phases for Fast Liquid Chromatography Separation of Synthetic Food Colorants

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 12; p. 3335
• Main Authors: Lhotská, Ivona, Solich, Petr, Šatínský, Dalibor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15-12-2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Acetonitrile; Ammonium; Ammonium acetate; Beverages; Chromatography; Coloring agents; Comparative studies; Core particles; dye; Efficiency; fast chromatography; Flow velocity; food additive; Food additives; Food analysis; food colorant; Food dyes; Ions; Liquid chromatography; Methods; monolithic column; Optimization; Phase composition; porous shell column; Separation; Soft drinks; Stationary phase; Trends; Czech Republic; dye; food colorant; porous shell column; monolithic column; chromatography; food additive; fast chromatography
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules23123335

Food analysis demands fast methods for routine control and high throughput of samples. Chromatographic separation enables simultaneous determination of numerous compounds in complex matrices, several approaches increasing separation efficiency and speed of analysis were involved. In this work, modern types of column with monolithic rod or superficially porous particles were employed and compared for determination of eight synthetic food dyes, their chromatographic performance was evaluated. During method optimization, cyano stationary phase Chromolith Performance CN 100 × 4.6 mm and Ascentis Express ES-CN 100 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm were selected for the separation of polar colorants. The separation was performed by gradient elution of acetonitrile/methanol and 2% water solution of ammonium acetate at flow rate 2.0 mL min
. Mobile phase composition and the gradients were optimized in order to enable efficient separation on both columns. The method using fused-core particle column provided higher separation efficiency, narrow peaks of analytes resulted in increased peak capacity and shortening of analysis time. After the validation, the method was applied for analysis of coloured beers, soft drinks and candies.