my @lines = sort <LOOPFILE>;
foreach ( @lines ) {
    # chomp;
    my @lineItems = split /\t/;
    # ...
    print OUTFILE "<br><b>$lineItems[0]</b> ($lineItems[1])\n";
    # ...
}

##</code><code>##

my @lines = <LOOPFILE>;
my @unsorted;
foreach ( @lines ) {
    # chomp;
    my @lineItems = split /\t/;
    push @unsorted, \@lineItems;
}
my @sorted = sort { $a->[0] cmp $b->[0] } @unsorted;
foreach ( @sorted ) {
    print OUTFILE '<br><b>', $_->[0], '</b> (', $_->[1], ")\n";
}