Simultaneous determination of sorbic and benzoic acids in commercial juices using the PLS-2 multivariate calibration method and validation by high performance liquid chromatography.

A new method to determine a mixture for preserving sorbic and benzoic acids in commercial juices is proposed. The PLS-2 model was obtained preparing 40 standard solutions adding concentration of sorbic and benzoic acid to filtered natural juices of apple, lemon, orange and grapefruit. The concentration of analytes in the commercial samples was evaluated using the obtained model by UV spectral data. The PLS-2 method was validated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), finding a relative error less than 12% between the PLS-2 and HPLC methods in all cases.