Determination of annatto in high-fat dairy products, margarine and hard candy by solvent extraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Utilizing solvents such as ethanolic aqueous ammonia, petroleum ether, hexane and chloroform, annatto components alpha- and beta-norbixin and alpha- and beta-bixin were extracted from cheese, butter, margarine and hard candy. After transferring the extract into a solution of aqueous acetic acid in methanol, bixin and norbixin were determined quantitatively using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and an absorbance detector set at 500 nm. Recovery of norbixin from spiked cheese samples averaged 92.6% over a range of 1 to 110 micrograms/g. Commercial cheese samples were found to contain 1.1-68.8 microgram/g total norbixin, and two samples also contained 5.1-5.6 micrograms/g total bixin. Samples of uncoloured butter were spiked with bixin and recovery averaged 93.2% over a range of 0.1 to 445 micrograms/g. Levels of 0.2 microgram/g total bixin and 0.91 microgram/g total norbixin were found in one commercial butter sample; the others contained trace levels of both compounds. Hard candies were prepared in the laboratory and recovery studies conducted. Recovery of norbixin averaged 88%.