Rapid Determination for Benzoic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Phenyllactic Acid, Phenylalanine, and Saccharin Sodium in Vinegar by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–UV

Preservatives and sweeteners are always added in the food production process, which can extend the life and flavor of food. Benzoic acid and saccharin sodium are commonly used as preservatives and sweeteners respectively. Phenyllactic acid as a natural preservative, mainly produced by phenylalanine fermentation, may exist in fermented food. The objective of the current study is to develop a reverse-phase HPLC-UV method for simultaneous determination of benzoic acid, sorbic acid, phenyllactic, phenylalanine, and saccharin sodium in vinegar. They were separated on Sapphiresil TM (C 18 ) column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase consisting of methyl alcohol:ammonium acetate buffer (pH 6.44; 0.02 M) (20:80, v/v) ran in isocratic mode at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Complete baseline separation of five analytes was achieved in < 12 min, the linear range was 0.25–50 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient R 2 value > 0.9975, the method was validated with recoveries in the 96.93 to 118.42% range, and RSD was 0.39–6.21%. The detection limits of phenylalanine, benzoic acid, saccharin sodium, sorbic acid, and phenyllactic acid were 0.25, 0.01, 0.01, 0.025, and 0.05 mg/L. This method could be used for determining of benzoic acid, sorbic acid, phenyllactic acid, phenylalanine, and saccharin sodium in vinegar. Graphical abstract