Spectrophotometric Analysis of Preservatives and Coloring Agents in Orange Soft Drink and Orange Juice Samples

A rapid and simple UV-Vis spectrophotometric method was used for the determination of the level of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 in 14 different batches of orange soft drink samples and 7 different batches of orange juice samples commercially available in local markets of Bangladesh. The standard samples of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 in water were used to make calibration curves and the correlation coefficient (r2) of the calibration curves were found to be 0.9993 and 0.9953 for sodium benzoate and yellow 6, respectively. The wavelength of absorption maxima was 225 nm for Sodium benzoate and 429 nm for yellow 6. All 14 analyzed soft drinks samples contained yellow 6 and sodium benzoate in the range of 2.90-162.51 mg/L and 94.06-387.66 mg/L, respectively. The highest amount of sodium benzoate and yellow 6 were found in the sample AMR (387.66 mg/L) and BRC (162.51 mg/L), respectively. Among the 7 orange juice samples yellow 6 were found in the range of 28.03-102.66 mg/L and the highest amount was in the sample OJ1 (102.66 mg/L). The reproducibility and repeatability of the method was very satisfactory with low value of RSD in a range of 0.05 to 4.17% and 0.05 to 4.07%, respectively. Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 66(2): 135-137, 2018 (July)