Residual levels of free and total sulphite in fresh and cooked burgers

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Abstract
Forty samples of fresh and fried burgers were analysed. A habitual use and often abuse of sulphites was detected. In the case of the uncooked samples, 62.5% contained residual levels of total SO2 above 450 μg/g. The frying process was found to lead to a mean reduction of 36.8 ± 11.1 1% in the case of free sulphite and of 40.9 ± 12.6% for total sulphite. This reduction was independent of the concentration of sulphite present and did not seem to be related to the type of meat used. Most burgers cooked in restaurants were found to contain sulphites, sometimes at elevated levels. The HPLC analytical method for the determination of sulphite contents in burgers, previously applied to fresh sausages, was compared with the optimized Monier‐Williams method. The results obtained with both methods in the determination of total SO2 were found to have the same precision although there were significant differences in the contents of additive (p < 0.05).