Abstract
In the method presented, propionic acid is isolated from bread by microdiffusion at an elevated temperature in preparation for determination by gas-liquid chromatography. This isolation procedure is simple, utilizes inexpensive equipment, and permits the simultaneous processing of a large number of samplef. Results obtained by microdiffusion agree closely with those obtained by steam distillation according to AOAC 14.089. After isolation by either microdiffusion or steam distillation, propionic acid in all samples was determined by gas-liquid chromatography as described in 18.038 rather than partition column chromatography as described in 14.090-14.091. An average of 98% of the propionic acid found by using steam distillation was found by using the microdiffusion technique.