Colorimetric determination of inorganic iodine in fortified culinary products

The presented colorimetric procedure only requires simple laboratory equipment and is suitable as a routine procedure for checking concentrations of iodine in fortified culinary products. The Moxon and Dixon colorimetric procedure for iodine determination has been optimised for the determination of iodide and iodate in fortified culinary products, always containing high salt levels. The high sensitivity of the method permits a high dilution of the product solutions, thus reducing interferences from the inherent colour of the products. The calibration is linear in the range from 0 to 12 microg L(-1) of iodine with R2 > 0.99. A series of commercial culinary products were used to validate the method. Recoveries of iodine, added as iodide and/or iodate, were generally in the range 100+/-10%. High concentrations of chloride are essential to obtain a complete recovery of iodate. Limit of quantification was estimated to be 2 mg kg(-1) of product, based on 2-3 g of product. Concentrations of iodine determined with this method were similar to those obtained by an ICP-MS procedure.