Determination of seven artificial sweeteners in diet food preparations by reverse-phase liquid chromatography with absorbance detection.

The artificial sweeteners aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate, alitame, acesulfam-K, sucralose, and dulcin are determined in diet soft drinks and tabletop sweetener preparations. Samples are diluted, filtered, and analyzed directly by liquid chromatography on a C-18 reverse-phase column with a mobile phase gradient ranging from 3% acetonitrile in 0.02M KH2PO4 (pH 5) to 20% acetonitrile in 0.02M KH2PO4 (pH 3.5). Diet puddings and dessert toppings are extracted with ethanol, filtered, and diluted with mobile phase for analysis. The sweeteners, except sucralose and cyclamate, were detected by UV absorbance at either 200 or 210 nm. Sucralose was determined at 200 nm or by refractive index. Cyclamate was determined after post-column ion-pair extraction. The sweeteners stevioside and talin were not detected. Additives such as caffeine, sorbic acid, and benzoic acid did not interfere.