High-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography to set the analysis method of stearoyl lactylate, a food emulsifier

Stearoyl lactylates (SLs, E481/E482) and their sodium and calcium salts are emulsifiers commonly used as food additives. This study was performed to set the analytical method of SLs in Korea using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). A new HPLC method using C18 column with water and methanol as the eluents, and a new GC method using DB-1 column with He as the carrier gas, were developed and were compared with previously reported analytical methods. The new HPLC and GC methods indicated a coefficient of determination (r²) of 0.999 in the calibration curves. The detection and quantification limits are 0.26 and 0.78 μg/kg for the HPLC method, respectively, and 16.54 and 50.12 μg/kg for the GC method, respectively. The new HPLC and GC methods indicated precision of 0-2.0%, and accuracy of 92.7-108.5%. Therefore, they can be applied in numerous food samples to determine the level of SLs.