DETERMINATION OF SYNTHETIC COLORS IN CONFECTIONERY AND CORDIALS BY MICELLAR ELECTROKINETIC CAPILLARY CHROMATOGRAPHY

A rapid method for the determination of a number of commonly used synt hetic colours permitted in confectionery and cordial in Australia by m icellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) is described. T he synthetic colours, green S, brilliant blue, erythrosine B, allura r ed, indigo carmine, sunset yellow, azorubine, amaranth, ponceau and ta rtrazine are well separated in less than 20 min using a 65 cm x 50 mu m uncoated fused-silica capillary column with a buffer comprising of 1 5% acetonitrile and 85% 0.05 M sodium deoxycholate/0.005 M potassium d ihydrogenorthophosphate/0.005 M sodium berate pH 8.6 operating at 30 k V. The compounds are detected with UV detection at 214 nm. Quinoline y ellow and brilliant black can also be determined using this system. Th e levers of synthetic colours in a variety of confectionery items and cordials were in good agreement with those determined by high-performa nce liquid chromatography (HPLC). The level of reporting for the MEKC procedure is 5 mg/kg. This procedure is faster and less costly to oper ate than the HPLC method currently used in our laboratory.