IMPROVED METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF SULFITES IN SHRIMP

A method for the determination of sulfites in shrimp developed by Kim and Kim and modified by Paino-Campa et al. for sausages has been furth er modified. Total sulfites are extracted by initially adding aluminum oxide to the sample and using an extraction solution at pH 12. In the reproducibility assays, coefficients of variation (CVs) were 4.8% for free sulfite and 7.8% for total sulfite in the edible part of the shr imp. In the inedible part, CVs were 7.5% and 8.9% for free and total s ulfite, respectively. Mean recovery was 87.8% for the edible part and 84.4% for the inedible part of the shrimp. The method was compared wit h the optimized Monier-Williams method. The results obtained with both methods for determination of total SO2 in the edible part of the shri mp did not show significant differences (P = 0.05).