Abstract
A qualitative and quantitative method of food dyes in liquid samples is proposed. The technique consists of extracting at pH 7.5 the ion-pair obtained from an acid dye and the tetrabutylammonium with chloroform/1-propanol (5:2). After evaporation of the solvent, the concentrated extract is analysed by high performance liquid chromatography. This method is of easy application and allows the determination of the amount of dyes of about 4 mg/L.