The Italian law (D.L. N. 107, 25.01.1992), relating to flavourings for use
in foodstuffs and to source materials for their production, defines the max
imum limits for certain natural substances present in flavourings, in food
ingredients or in foodstuffs. Safrole and isosafrole are among these substa
nces limited by law. The present note describes an analytical method suitab
le for routine analyses and useful to give results characterised by high re
covery. The method is optimised in operating conditions in respect to safro
le and isosafrole identification.