Development and Validation of an Ion Chromatography Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Seven Food Additives in Cheeses

Cheeses are characterized by several chemical-physical properties that make it difficult for the microorganisms growth, consequently. The actual European legislation allows the addition of few food additives in this type of food products. In this work, the entire procedure of extraction, purification, chromatographic separations and quali/quantitative determination of seven food additives (sorbic acid, benzoic acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, nitrites, nitrates and phosphates) was developed and applied for the analysis of different types of cheese (mozzarella, cheese spread, semi-hard and hard cheeses). Through validation procedure it was possible to evaluate the most important validation parameters. Extended calibration curves (r > 0.990) were obtained for all the analyzed compounds. Recovery values ranged from 72.8% to 98.4% and a good repeatability was obtained, with precision levels in the range of 0.03% - 0.11% (n = 6). The potential and feasibility of the method were tested by analysing real samples, such as mozzarella, cheese spread, semi-hard and hard cheeses, confirming that the method is well suited to satisfy the demands for accurate confirmation analyses of seven food additives in cheeses, which is especially valuable in official check analyses and in monitoring schemes.