Validation, measurement uncertainty, and determination of polysorbate-labeled foods distributed in Korea

This study reports the improvement and validation of a colorimetric method to quantify polysorbates (20, 60, 65, and 80) in food by measuring absorbance at 620 nm using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. The method was validated for linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantitation (LOQ), precision, accuracy, and measurement uncertainty. The coefficient of determination was linear (r ² ≥ 0.9991) over the measured concentration range of 50-1000 mg/L. The LOD and LOQ were 2.3-4.9 and 7.0-15.0 mg/kg, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision were 91.9-104.1% and 0.1-1.1% RSD, and 91.6-103.8% and 0.4-5.0% RSD, respectively. The result of inter-laboratory recovery was 90.9-99.8% and the measurement uncertainty was < 16% with the compliance of the CODEX recommendation. Sauce, bread, whipped cream, rice cake, ice cream, and various other polysorbate-labeled food products (n = 229, detection range; N.D.-16,442.3 mg/kg) distributed in Korea were analyzed to confirm the applicability of the analytical method.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-024-01544-w.