Reevaluation of Monier-Williams method for determining sulfite in food

The Monier-Williams distillation procedure has a long history of successful use for determining sulfite in fruit products and wine; however, a systematic evaluation of its accuracy and precision with other food matrices has not been undertaken. We found that the Monier-Williams distillation yielded greater than 90% recovery of sulfite added to foods such as table grapes, hominy, dried mangoes, and lemon juice. Less than 85% recovery was obtained with broccoli, soda crackers, cheese-peanut butter crackers, mushrooms, and potato chips. These results may, in fact, accurately reflect the residual levels of sulfite if a portion of the sulfite undergoes irreversible reaction with some food components. Analysis of commercial food products gave sulfite levels ranging from 1400 ppm in dried apple slices to 25 ppm in cream sherry.