INTRODUCTION

The method¹ is used for the determination of the mass concentration of caffeine, ascorbic acid and its salts, sorbic acid and its salts, benzoic acid, and its salts, acesulfame K, saccharin and its salts in beverages.

The method can be applied for all types of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages including sport and energetic drinks, juices, beer and beer products, wines, brandy and spirits, liquors, and vodka.

MEASUREMENT METHOD

The micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) allows separation of neutral and ionic forms of analyzed components. The components are detected by intrinsic absorption at a wavelength of 254 nm.

MEASUREMENT RANGE

Measurement ranges of analyzed components are presented in the table below.

* For every mentioned form of the food additive.

The present method does  not allow separation of such food additives as E 200 – E 203, E210 – E 213,         E 300 – E 303, and E 954. Other sweeteners (aspartame, cyclamate) synthetic food dyes, vitamins B, and vanillin do not hinder the analysis if added in concentrations, typical for the analyzed drinks.

EQUIPMENT AND REAGENTS

The CAPEL capillary electrophoresis system is used in measurements. Data  acquisition,  collection,  processing and output are performed using a personal computer running under WINDOWS® XP/7/8/10 operating system with installed dedicated software package ELFORUN.

Lumex Instruments complex set, order No 0300002054.