On-line generation of cyanogen chloride in semiautomated determination of niacin and niacinamide in food products.

The current AOAC procedure for semiautomated determination of niacin specifies the use of externally generated cyanogen bromide. Because of the safety concerns in handling this material, we investigated the use of an alternative system of generating cyanogen chloride in situ, using chloramine-T and potassium cyanide. Recovery studies conducted on 9 different food products yielded average recoveries of 101%. A repeatability study resulted in a measured coefficient of variation of 2.9%. The AOAC niacin method was compared with this semiautomated method; 115 paired analyses on 8 different food types over 6 separate analytical replications indicated no significant difference by a paired t-test at the 95% confidence level.