Sensitive and simple determination of bromate in foods disinfected with hypochlorite reagents using high performance liquid chromatography with post-column derivatization

A novel analytical method for the quantification of bromate in fresh foods using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a post-column reaction has been developed. The fresh food sample solutions were pretreated with homogenization, centrifugal ultrafiltration and subsequent solid phase extraction using a strong anion-exchange resin. After separation on a strong anion-exchange chromatography column using a highly concentrated NaCl solution (0.3 M) as the eluent, the bromate was quantified by detection using a post-column reaction with a non-carcinogenic reagent (tetramethylbenzidine). The developed HPLC technique made it possible to quantify bromate in salt-rich fresh foods. The recoveries from fresh foods spiked with bromate at low levels (2 or 10 ng/g) satisfactorily ranged from 75.3 to 90.7%. The lowest quantification limit in fresh foods was estimated to be 0.6 ng/g as bromic acid. The method should be helpful for the quantification of bromate in fresh foods disinfected with hypochlorite solutions.