Analysis of water-soluble vitamins and caffeine in beverage and multivitamin products

Vitamins are essential to maintain health and promote growth in the human body. Many manufacturers produce supplements, including multivitamin tablets, and vitamin enhanced beverages, to help consumers achieve the required daily vitamin levels. Several multivitamins can be found in many products such as fruit juice, vitamin waters, energy drinks, and sports drinks. Food and beverage manufacturers must comply with strict regulatory requirements, and are required to clearly indicate vitamin compounds, colorings, and other additives that have been included in their products.

Once a product has been formulated, food and beverage manufacturers require rapid, reliable, and cost-effective methods to analyze the nutritional content of their products to ensure that their label claims can be substantiated. This application note from Waters Corporation outlines an analytical method that has been developed to detect and quantify 10 water-soluble vitamins and caffeine in multivitamin tablets and vitamin enhanced beverages. The separation was performed using an Arc HPLC-PDA combined with an XSelect HSS T3 XP Analytical Column.