Survey the Tartrazine in rock candy samples in market by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)

Abstract

Since saffron is an expensive product, in many ways some fraud is done by fraudulent individuals. Unfortunately, many dealers and sellers who are thinking of benefiting from this booming and bestseller market of saffron due to its high price, sometimes they may cheat to lower the cost of producing saffron using organic materials such as Tartrazine . Goal: The aim of this study is to identify and determine the amount of Tartrazine in rock candy products using high performance and efficiency liquid chromatography method. Methods and Materials: This study is a basic-applied (practical) type. This evaluation was performed on 30 samples of rock candy which were provided from different supermarkets and confectionaries in Tabriz. The samples were gathered randomly during the years of 1396-97 (2017-2018) and were sent to the food control laboratory for analyzing the type of color and were identified using the proposed method after extracting the existing color. High performance and efficiency liquid chromatography was used to measure the color of the samples. Results: After analyzing and detecting the colors of 30 samples studied according to the National Standard of Iran (No. 739) and amendment, 73% of samples contained Tartrazine unlike the rules of Iranian Food and Drug Administration. Conclusion: Using HPLC for controlling and identifying the additives can use more separation efficiency than other chromatography methods with high certainty and assurance. The prevalence of contamination in rock candy samples due to the more consumption of this product in the society indicates that it has a greater contribution to the transfer of this color in the diet that in contrary to the available rules the most foodstuffs production and supply centers use Tartrazine.