Introduction: Benzoate and sorbate are used to prevent the growth of microorganisms and toincrease the shelf life of the food in general. The purpose of this study was to detect benzoateand sorbate in some food products using Dispersive Liquid Liquid Microextraction and HighPerformance Liquid Chromatography as well as to determine the extent of accordancebetween sorbate and benzoate contents in different foodstuffs with the permitted standardlevel.Materials and Methods: Eight types of food samples consisted of soft drinks (n=15), UltraHigh Temperature (UHT) milk (n=15), ketchup sauce (n=15), yoghurt drink (n=15), fruitjuice (n=15), tomato paste (n=15), cake (n=15) and bread (n=9) were analyzed based onDispersive Liquid- Liquid Microextraction method. Optimum conditions were determined asfollows: sample volume, 5ml; extraction solvent (chloroform) volume, 250μl; dispersersolvent (acetone) volume, 1.2ml; NaCl amount, 0.75 g/5 ml at pH of 4.Results: Benzoic acid was detected in 107 (93.8%) of the samples ranged from less than 0.1to 1520 μg/mL and sorbic acid in 60 (52.6%) of the samples ranged from 0.08 to 2305 μg/mL.Among all the food samples, soft drinks indicated the highest concentrations of benzoate(1520 μg/mL) and sorbate (2305 μg/mL). 74.1% and 24.9% of food samples examinedcontained upper level of benzoate and sorbate respectively than the permitted level ofNational standard. Among all the samples, soft drinks and yoghurt drink were found to havethe highest concentrations in this respect.Conclusion: In general, sorbate and benzoate contents of soft drink, yoghurt drink, fruit juice,UHT milk, tomato paste and ketchup sauce were exceeded the amounts defined by thenational standard, while industrial breads and cake samples had lower concentrations of thesepreservatives.
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