Simultaneous determination of five sweeteners in foods by HPLC

A simple method for the simultaneous determination of five artificial sweet eners, alitame (AL), acesulfame K (AK), saccharin (SA), aspartame (APM) and dulcin (DU) in various foods by high performance liquid chromatography (HP LC) was developed. Chopped or homogenized samples were packed into cellulose tubing with 0.01 mol/L hydrochloric acid containing 10% sodium chloride, and dialyzed agains t 0.01 mol/L hydrochloric acid for 24 similar to 48 hours. Tetra-n-butylamm onium bromide and pH 5.0 phosphate buffer were added to the dialyzate. The solution was passed through a Sep-Pak Vac C18 cartridge, and the cartridge was washed with water and a mixture of methanol-water (1:9). The five sweet eners were eluted from the cartridge with a mixture of methanol-water (45:5 5). The sweeteners were separated on an Inertsil ODS-2 column with a mobile phase of methanol-water (1:3) containing 0.01 mol/L tetra-n-propylammonium hydroxide adjusted to pH 3.5 with phosphoric acid and were detected at 210 nm. The recoveries of the five sweeteners from various kinds of foods spiked at 200 mu g/g ranged from 77 similar to 102%. The detection limits of the fiv e sweeteners were 10 mu g/g in the samples.