A chromatographic method for analysis of nine sweeteners

Sweeteners form an important class of food additives, which are used in an increasingly wide range of food products and beverages. The IRMM has developed and validated a high performance liquid chromatographic method with evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD). This method is capable of simultaneous identification and quantification of six authorised sweeteners, and of three non-authorised sweeteners in beverages, canned or bottled fruits and yoghurts (acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamic acid, dulcin, neotame, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, saccharin and sucralose).

By determining the nine sweeteners simultaneously, the method offers faster response time, less handling and lower costs than if individual determinations had to be carried out for the nine sweeteners. Furthermore, since sweeteners are often used in combination, a multi-analyte method is more convenient than several determinations of individual sweeteners.

The method and its single-laboratory validation is described in: Wasik, A., McCourt., J., and Buchgraber, M., Simultaneous determination of nine intense sweeteners in foodstuffs by high performance liquid chromatography and evaporative light scattering detection - development and single laboratory validation, Journal of Chromatography A 1157 (2007) 187-196.

Source: Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM)