Simultaneous determination of ascorbic, dehydroascorbic, isoascorbic, and dehydroisoascorbic acids in meat-based food...

Area of Science:

• Food Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Nutritional Science

Background:

• Accurate vitamin C quantification is essential for assessing the nutritional value of processed foods.
• Existing methods may not be suitable for complex, multicomponent food matrices.
• Ascorbic acid and its isomers are key antioxidants with varying stability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a liquid chromatographic (LC) method for determining ascorbic, dehydroascorbic, isoascorbic, and dehydroisoascorbic acids.
• To adapt and validate the method for multicomponent meat-based food products, specifically TV dinners.
• To assess the impact of sample preparation techniques on analytical accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Liquid chromatography (LC) was employed for the separation and quantification of vitamin C and its isomers.
• Fortification studies using ground-beef blanks were conducted to assess recovery and repeatability.
• Analysis of 21 commercially available TV dinner products was performed.
• Comparison of sample homogenization using a commercial food processor versus a food grinder.

Main Results:

• Mean recoveries for ascorbic acid were 102.5% (CV 6.7%) and for isoascorbic acid were 83.5% (CV 15.2%) across fortification levels.
• The commercial food processor yielded more homogeneous samples compared to the food grinder, which is critical for method accuracy.
• Vitamin C content was successfully determined in TV dinner samples.

Conclusions:

• The evaluated LC method is suitable for the determination of vitamin C and its isomers in multicomponent meat-based food products.
• Effective sample homogenization is critical for reliable results in complex food matrices.
• This method provides a valuable tool for nutritional analysis of processed convenience foods.