Method for determination of hydrogen peroxide in adulterated milk using high performance liquid chromatography

Hydrogen peroxide is widely used for disinfection purposes by food industry enterprises. Apart from other purposes it is also used to sterilize the packaging of dairy products. In some countries hydrogen peroxide is added to milk as an adulterant for shelf life extension. However, in most countries the concentration of hydrogen peroxide in milk is limited or it is even prohibited to add this substance to the product. This study is the first one to describe the method of determination of hydrogen peroxide in milk using high performance liquid chromatography. Indirect quantitative evaluation of hydrogen peroxide is carried out according to the amount of triphenyl oxide produced after the reaction between hydrogen peroxide with triphenylphosphine. It has been shown that interaction of triphenylphosphine and hydrogen peroxide required about 40 min. The detection limit of this method is 0.28 mg/L. The recovery of hydrogen peroxide was from 97.8% to 103.8%.