The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC)
approves the use of 10% (v/v) H2SO4 in the official
sulfated ash method for sugars. When the AOAC
procedure (AOAC, 1990) was applied, the preashing
time, which is the time elapsed when the samples were
ashed on a Bunsen burner, was too long, and the method
was tedious and required too much attention. Therefore,
here, the use of concentrated H2SO4 instead of 10%
H2SO4 was tried to shorten the span of preashing. The
results of analyses of white sugar samples in terms of
Cu, Fe, and Pb concentrations ashed by 10% H2SO4 and
concentrated H2SO4 are given in Table 2. Since there
is no big difference between the mean values of these
sets, concentrated H2SO4 seems to perform as well as
10% H2SO4. Modifications in container size and material
and in H2SO4 concentration decrease the preashing
time from 6 to 1 h.