Development of a Sequential Injection Analysis System for the Determination of Saccharin

Abstract

Saccharin is a powerfully sweet nonnutritive sweetener that has been approved for food-processing applications within the range of 100–1200 mg/kg. A simple, rapid, and cost-effective sequential injection analysis (SIA) technique was developed to determine the saccharin level. This method is based on the reaction of saccharin with p-chloranil in an ethanol medium with a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) acceleration, and the resultant violet-red compound was detected using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer at λmax = 420 nm. To ascertain the optimal conditions for the SIA system, several parameters were investigated, including buffer flow rate and volume, p-chloranil concentration, and reactant volumes (saccharin, p-chloranil, and H2O2). The optimum setup of the SIA system was achieved with a buffer flow rate, buffer volume, and draw-up time of 1.2 mL/min, 2900 µL, and ~145 s, respectively. The optimal p-chloranil concentration is 30 mM, and the best reactant volumes, presented in an ordered sequence, are as follows: 30 µL of H2O2, 450 µL of saccharin, and 150 µL of p-chloranil. The optimized SIA configuration produced a good linear calibration curve with a correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9812) in the concentration range of 20–140 mg/L and with a detection limit of 19.69 mg/L. Analytical applications in different food categories also showed acceptable recovery values in the range of 93.1–111.5%. This simple and rapid SIA system offers great feasibility for the saccharin quality control in food-product processing.

Determination of Saccharin through a Carbon Paste Sensor Modified by Electrodeposition of Silver Film

“…3,4 In Brazil, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA) establishes the limit as 0.0015 g in 100 ml of beverages. 5 Many separation techniques have been proposed to determinate saccharin, such as potentiometry, 6 voltammetry, [7][8][9] spectrophotometry, 10 analysis systems by flow injection [11][12][13] or sequential injection, 14 capillary electrophoresis with UV detection, 15,16 high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD), 17,18 and even by classic methods, such as the gravimetry and the titrimetry by Vollhard's method. 19,20 The voltammetric method highlighted among the others cited because it demands a short analysis time, low cost and simplicity.…”