Quantification of residual nitrite and nitrate in ham by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography/diode array detector

Nitrite and nitrate are used as additives in ham industry to provide colour, taste and protect against clostridia. The classical colorimetric methods widely used to determine nitrite and nitrate are laborious, suffer from matrix interferences and involve the use of toxic cadmium. The use of chromatography is potentially attractive since it is more rapid, sensitive, selective and provides reliable and accurate results. A rapid and cost-effective RP-HPLC method with diode array detector was optimized and validated for quantification of nitrites and nitrates in ham. The chromatographic separation was achieved using a HyPurity C18, 5 μm chromatographic column and gradient elution with 0.01 M n-octylamine and 5 mM tetrabutylammonium hydrogenosulphate to pH 6.5. The determinations were performed in the linear range of 0.0125–10.0 mg/L for nitrite and 0.0300–12.5 g/L for nitrate. The detection limits were 0.019 and 0.050 mg/kg, respectively. The reliability of the method in terms of precision and accuracy was evaluated. Coefficients of variation lower than 2.89% and 5.47% were obtained for nitrite and nitrate, respectively (n = 6). Recoveries of residual nitrite/nitrate ranged between 93.6% and 104.3%. Analysis of cooked and dried ham samples was performed, and the results obtained were in agreement with reference procedures.