Ion pairing high pressure liquid chromatographic determination of amaranth in licorice products

A high pressure liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of amaranth (FD&C Red No. 2; Red No. 2) in licorice products. The Red No. 2 is extracted with a basic buffer solution, cleaned up on a Sep-Pak column, Chromatographed on a reverse phase column in the ion pairing mode, and detected at 254 nm. The procedure is time-conservative with accurate and precise results. Recovery data ranged from 93 to 104%, and coefficients of variation were less than 4% for standards and samples.