Chemical stability of encapsulated aspartame in cakes without added sugar

Encapsulated aspartame (APM), developed to protect the APM molecule during baking, has not been evaluated for stability during baking and subsequent product storage. Thus, the objectives of this project were to determine the APM recovery in various cake formulations after baking and to evaluate APM degradation kinetics during product storage. The recovery of encapsulated APM after baking was 33–34% while that of non-encapsulated APM was 22%. The addition of the acidulant glucono-delta lactone (GDL) to the formulation increased the recovery of encapsulated APM to 58%. The rate constants of APM degradation in the cakes with and without GDL at 22 °C were 0.0085 and 0.035 day−1, respectively. By using 2.5% encapsulated APM in cupcake mixes for home preparation, enough APM should remain to provide adequate sweetness during typical product shelf life.