Simultaneous determination of nine intense sweeteners in foodstuffs by high performance liquid chromatography and evaporative light scattering detection—Development and single-laboratory validation

A high performance liquid chromatographic method with evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD) has been developed for the simultaneous determination of multiple sweeteners, i.e., acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamic acid, dulcin, neotame, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, saccharin and sucralose in carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, canned or bottled fruits and yoghurt. The procedure involves an extraction of the nine sweeteners with a buffer solution, sample clean-up using solid-phase extraction cartridges followed by an HPLC–ELSD analysis. The trueness of the method was satisfactory with recoveries ranging from 93 to 109% for concentration levels around the maximum usable dosages for authorised sweeteners and from 100 to 112% for unauthorised compounds at concentration levels close to the limit of quantification (LOQs). Precision measures showed mean repeatability values of <4% (expressed as relative standard deviation) for highly concentrated samples and <5% at concentration levels close to the LOQs. Intermediate precision was in most cases <8%. The limits of detection (LODs) were below 15 μg g−1 and the LOQs below 30 μg g−1 in all three matrices. Only dulcin showed slightly higher values, i.e., LODs around 30 μg g−1 and LOQs around 50 μg g−1.