Development and Validation of HPLC Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Five Food Additives and Caffeine in Soft Drinks

Box-Behnken design was applied to optimize high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) conditions for the simultaneous determination of potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, carmoisine, allura red, ponceau 4R, and caffeine in commercial soft drinks. The experimental variables chosen were pH (6.0–7.0), flow rate (1.0–1.4 mL/min), and mobile phase ratio (85–95% acetate buffer). Resolution values of all peak pairs were used as a response. Stationary phase was Inertsil OctaDecylSilane- (ODS-) 3V reverse phase column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) dimensions. The detection was performed at 230 nm. Optimal values were found 6.0 pH, 1.0 mL/min flow rate, and 95% mobile phase ratio for the method which was validated by calculating the linearity (r2>0.9962), accuracy (recoveries ≥ 95.75%), precision (intraday variation ≤ 1.923%, interday variation ≤ 1.950%), limits of detection (LODs), and limits of quantification (LOQs) parameters. LODs and LOQs for analytes were in the range of 0.10–0.19 μg/mL and 0.33–0.63 μg/mL, respectively. The proposed method was applied successfully for the simultaneous determination of the mixtures of five food additives and caffeine in soft drinks