Determination of acetaldehyde in liquid, solid and semi-solid food after pervaporation-derivatization

A spectrophotometric method for the determination of acetaldehyde in liquid, semi-solid and solid food samples, employing the coupling of a continuous flow configuration to a pervaporation unit, has been proposed. It is based on the reaction of the analyte with fuchsin in acidic medium and subsequent formation of a coloured product (alkylsulphonic acid chromophore) with sodium sulphite, which was monitored spectrophotometrically. Variable sensitivity was obtained by altering the pervaporation temperature and the thickness of the membrane. The detection limits went down to 4.2 mu g/mL and the precision was between 1.2 and 3.6%.