Liquid chromatographic determination of vitamins B1 and B2 in foods. A collaborative study

A collaborative study was conducted to re-evaluate the chromatographic method proposed as the official French method in 1987 for the determination of vitamins B1 and B2 in foods. Twelve participants analysed nine samples containing various amounts of vitamin b1 (from 1.1 to 4860 μg g−1) and vitamin B2 (from 2.1 to 871 μg g−1). Reproducibility relative standard deviations (RSDR) were generally between 13 and 21% for vitamin B1 determination, between 5 and 13% for vitamin B2 determination, and did not appear to depend on the vitamin concentration. ll the foodstuffs studied, the recovery rate of the method was always superior to 89%, except with the chocolate powder, for which it reduced to approximately 50% for vitamin B1 and 75% for vitamin B2. In spite of this drawback, the chromatographic method proposed was confirmed as the official French method for vitamin B1 and B2 determination in foodstuffs for nutritional purposes.