Rapid reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography assay of Tert-butylhydroquinone content in food products

The use of antioxidant has been widely applied in food industry to maintain the product's condition to the end consumer. Tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) is a synthetic aromatic organic compound which is often used as antioxidant in food, especially oil product and its derivatives. The use of TBHQ in food products has been limited by the government in most countries, including Indonesia. Therefore, the need for a rapid method to assay the concentration of TBHQ in products is quite high in food industry. In this article, we propose a rapid reversed-phase HPLC method to assay TBHQ content in food products. The isocratic system using 1 % acetic acid and acetonitrile in 3:2 ratio with 1 mL min−1 flow rate produces good separation of TBHQ. Target peak was eluted in 5 min and the whole procedure only need maximum of 18 min to elute all the sample component. The LOD of the method was determined at 0.2 mg L−1, while the lower limit of quantification was 0.5 mg L−1. The accuracy of the method has been proved with acceptable recovery ranging from 95 % to 105 %.