Determination of vitamins A and E in cooked sausages

A reliable and sensitive reverse-phase HPLC method is described for the separation and quantification of all-trans-retinol and dl-α-tocopherol in cooked sausages. Samples were chromatographed with UV and fluorescence detection on a 15 cm × 0.4 cm i.d. Spherisorb ODS-2, 5 μm column, using as mobile phase a mixture of 90% acetonitrile and 10% tetrahydrofuran. Sample preparation included saponification and extraction by n-hexane. Addition of pyrogallol and oxygen-free conditions avoided oxidation of both vitamins, increasing recovery percentages, which ranged from 90.0 to 95.0%. Precision was 1.0% (within a day) and 3.4% (between days) for all-trans-retinol and 1.1% (within a day) and 2.6% (between days) for dl-α-tocopherol. Detection limits were 10 μg/100 g for all-trans-retinol and 0.1 mg/100 g for dl-α-tocopherol with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Twenty samples of six different products were analyzed in duplicate. Average for all-trans-retinol in “enriched chopped” was 108 mg/100 g fresh weight, and the mean value for dl-α-tocopherol in “enriched chopped” was 2.3 mg/100 g fresh weight.