Development and validation of analytical method for determining the artificial dyes in breakfast cereals by means of high performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Validation of analytical methodology is an important tool to ensure the applicability and scope of a technique for laboratory routine, establishing the limits of the quality parameters of instrumental measurements and the statistical reliability by estimating the procedure performance. There are several normative documents for establishing the figures of merit, namely, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), linearity, electivity, repetitivity, intermediate precision and recovery. This work aimed at developing and validating an analytical methodology for quantifying the artificial dyes in cereal by means of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). All of the validation process of this study was performed according to the recommendations by Thompson et al, and following the guidance stated in the document INMETRO DOQ-CGCRE-08 and the harmonized Guidelines IUPAC. After ompleting all of the validation steps, the methodology showed to be precise, exact, linear over a wide concentration range and its analysis has not being influenced by the food matrix for HPLC determination. Moreover, the methodology has shown as an important contribution since no official methodologies have been available for determining artificial dyes in breakfast cereals.