A novel reaction for spectrophotometric determination of bromate in bread flour and water samples

A sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method based on oxidation of Nile red with potassium bromate for determination of bromate in bread samples has been developed. The method allows the determination of bromate in the range 25.0-970.0 μg/ml (r2=0.995) for 0.5-2 min. The relative standard deviation were 4.89, 3.88 and 4.63% for determination of 50.0, 250.0 and 750 μg/ml of bromate (n=5), respectively, and the limit of detection (3 Sb/m) was 0.0589 μg/ml. The precision, accuracy and selectivity of the method are discussed. The proposed method was applied successfully for the determination of bromate in spiked bread flour and water samples.