Fast Simultaneous Determination of Eight Sudan Dyes in Chili Oil by Ultra-High-Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

Abstract

A rapid and simple ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography (UHPSFC) with photodiode array (PDA) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of eight Sudan dyes in chili oil. In particular, a pair of isomer, Sudan red B and Sudan IV, was included in the analysis. After being diluted with dichloromethane, the analytes were separated on an Acquity UPC2 HSS C18 SB column with gradient elution using CO2 as the mobile phase and acetonitrile/methanol (v/v, 45/55, containing 0.1% formic acid) as the organic modifier. Analytes were quantified by external calibration curves over ranges of 0.5–50 mg/L, with correlation coefficients above 0.999. The method gave recoveries of the target compounds (spiked at levels of 1, 5, and 25 mg/kg) ranging from 82.6 to 108.3%, with intraday and interday relative standard deviations of less than 8.0% and 8.6%, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) and the limits of quantification (LOQs) for eight dyes were from 0.10 to 0.30 mg/kg and 0.30–1.00 mg/kg, respectively. This method was applied for the analysis of chili oil samples collected from the supermarket in Beijing. This validated that the UHPSFC-PDA method provides a useful strategy for the simultaneous determination of Sudan dyes in chili oil for routine analysis.