Simultaneous and rapid analysis of chemical preservatives in processed animal products by ultra-performance liquid chromatography

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tunable ultraviolet method was optimized and validated for the simultaneous analysis of nine chemical preservatives in processed animal products. The limits of detection and quantification for the preservatives were within the ranges of 0.02–0.23 and 0.07–0.76 μg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviations for intraday analyses of retention time and peak area were 0.00–0.23 and 0.03–2.93%, respectively, whereas, those for interday analyses were 0.67–2.30 and 2.12–5.37%, respectively. Of the nine preservatives spiked into six different animal products, dehydroacetic acid spiked into soft cheese exhibited the lowest recovery rate of 72.1 ± 0.36% at the lowest concentration (0.25 g/kg). Comparing data between UPLC and high-performance liquid chromatography with a 5% significance level, the t-statistic was 1.42. Moreover, sorbic acid was detected in 16 animal products (0.11–2.49 g/kg) when 278 products were analyzed for preservatives.