Nitrate and nitrite levels in six types of beverages--total of 292 individual samples from 73 brands (four bottles each)--from Guangzhou city in China were evaluated by ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography. All samples contained nitrate. Nitrate and nitrite ranges were 0.43-46.08 and <0.005-0.501 mg/L, respectively. The highest nitrate levels were detected in tea drinks (46.08 mg/L). For nitrite, the highest levels were found in fruit juice drinks (0.501 mg/L). Three brands of fruit juice drinks exceeded the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives provisional guideline value of 0.2 mg/L for nitrite and were considered to be hazardous for public health. This study supplies useful information on safety of Chinese bottled beverages.
Keywords: HPLC; beverage; food analysis; food safety; nitrate; nitrite.