New method based on solid-phase extraction and ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector for the trace level detection of safranin and rhodamine B dyes in kid's candies

Safranin (SA) and rhodamine B (RhB) are toxic chemicals, banned from food coloring. In the current study, a new approach based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) and ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector (UHPLC-FLD) have been optimized for the detection of SA and RhB in kids' candies. In order to get the best outcomes, various SPE cartridges were tested out, among them Supel–Select HLB was found to be the best SPE method. Separation of SA and RhB was achieved using an Eclipse Plus Phenyl-Hexyl column with dimension (150 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm particle size). The approach linearity was obtained in the range of 0.002–0.7 µg/mL (SA) and 0.0005–0.07 µg/mL (RhB), with high correlation coefficients values (R², 0.9994). The limit of detection (LOD) was obtained 0.104 ng/mL (SA) and 0.139 ng/mL (RhB). The method demonstrated good precision with RSD% values lower than 5.0 %. The optimized approach was utilized for the analysis of nineteen kids' candies revealed varying levels of SA and RhB (ND-15.06 and ND-3.05 ng/g), with some samples containing no detectable amounts of these contaminants. A high level of sensitivity and accuracy was achieved with the optimized method without matrix interference.