Simultaneous Determination of Five Sweeteners in Foods by HPLC

Abstract

A simple method for the simultaneous determination of five artificial sweeteners, alitame (AL), acesulfame K (AK), saccharin (SA), aspartame (APM) and dulcin (DU) in various foods by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed.Chopped or homogenized samples were packed into cellulose tubing with 0.01mol/L hydrochloric acid containing 10% sodium chloride, and dialyzed against 0.01mol/L hydrochloric acid for 24-48 hours. Tetra-n-butylammonium bromide and pH 5.0 phosphate buffer were added to the dialyzate. The solution was passed through a Sep-Pak Vac C18 cartridge, and the cartridge was washed with water and a mixture of methanol-water (1:9). The five sweeteners were eluted from the cartridge with a mixture of methanol-water (45:55). The sweeteners were separated on an Inertsil ODS-2 column with a mobile phase of methanol-water (1:3) containing 0.01mol/L tetra-n-propylammonium hydroxide adjusted to pH 3.5 with phosphoric acid and were detected at 210nm.The recoveries of the five sweeteners from various kinds of foods spiked at 200μg/g ranged from 77-102%. The detection limits of the five sweeteners were 10μg/g in the samples.