Aspartame stability in commercially sterilized flavored dairy beverages.

The objective of this research was to evaluate the stability of aspartame in commercially sterilized skim milk beverages that contained different buffer salts, buffer concentrations, and flavor. The effects of pH and temperature on aspartame stability in these dairy beverages were also studied. The pH and storage temperature appeared to be the two most important factors for a successful dairy beverage sweetened with aspartame. The half-lives were 1 to 4 d at 30 degrees C and 24 to 58 d at 4 degrees C. Decreasing the pH from 6.7 to 6.4 doubled the stability of aspartame. The type and concentration of buffer had only a minor influence on the aspartame stability. The addition of vanilla did not enhance the degradation of aspartame in dairy beverages.