Determination of nine intense sweeteners in foodstuffs by high-performance liquid chromatography and evaporative light-scattering detection: interlaboratory study.

An interlaboratory trial was conducted to validate an analytical method based on high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis with evaporative light-scattering detection for the simultaneous determination of 9 intense sweeteners, i.e., acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamic acid, dulcin, neotame, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, saccharin, and sucralose in carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks and canned or bottled fruits. Seven laboratories participated in the validation study. The majority of the samples fortified with levels close to the limit of quantification had relative standard deviation for reproducibility (RSDR) values <15%. In most cases, the recovery rates ranged between 90 and 105%, demonstrating satisfactory performance of the method. For samples fortified at levels comparable to the prescribed legal limits stipulated in the current European Union legislation, the method produces acceptably accurate, repeatable, and reproducible results. Trueness, expressed in terms of recovery rates, was demonstrated in most cases by values ranging from 90 to 108%. Comparability of results obtained by individual testing laboratories was good (RSDR values <10%) for the majority of results. Moreover, HorRat values of <1.1 suggested good performance of the method for all sweeteners and matrixes tested.