A novel method for the determination of sodium chloride in salted fish

A novel, simple and reliable spectrophotometric method to determine sodium chloride in salted fish was developed and validated. The method was based on the reaction of chloride with silver nitrate and the determination of turbidity of silver chloride formed. The absorbance was measured at 385 nm. The method was tested under various conditions, and we confirmed an optimal operation with 2 mL 1:4 (v/v) nitric acid, 2 mL 1.5 g L^?1 gelatin, 5 mL 0.5% silver nitrate in a total volume of 50 mL, mixed and heated at 60 °C for 10 min. The range of linearity and the detection limit were 0.4–24 mg L^?1 and 0.2 mg L^?1, respectively. The relative standard deviations and the recovery were 0.83% to 2.87% and 93.74% to 103.6%, respectively. The accuracy of this method was comparable with Volhard method, and it was cheap and successfully applied to determine sodium chloride in salted fish.