Evaluation of high-intensity sweeteners in fruit-based sweets, desserts and confections

A method was established for the simultaneous determination of nine high-intensity sweeteners (HIS) in jellies, puddings, jams, cocoa products, chewing gum and candies. Briefly, the samples were diluted, filtered and analyzed using LC-ESI-MS/MS to determine the content of acesulfame potassium, sucralose, aspartame, rebaudioside A, neotame, saccharin, sodium cyclamate, stevioside and advantame. The chromatographic separation was achieved in an analytical column Poroshell C18 (2.1 x 50mm, 2.7µm) maintained at 40 ºC. A ternary mobile phase consisting of formic acid solution 0.1% (A) and acetronitrile:methanol 1:1 (v/v) acidified with 0.1% of formic acid (B) was employed in gradient mode elution. The analytical method was validated and applied in 110 commercial samples with partial or total sugar reduction, including two different batches of each product. Coefficients of variation (CV%) for precision were lower than 16.6% and accuracy was between 72.2% and 109.9%. The presence of at least one and at most five HIS was observed in the analyzed samples, with different concentrations for the distinct brands. For acesulfame potassium, the concentration ranged from 1.5 to 299.2 mg/100g, for saccharin from 1.0 to 25.7 mg/100g, sodium cyclamate from 1.5 to 105.6 mg/100g, sucralose from 4.2 to 106.1 mg/100g, aspartame from 2.2 to 649.0 mg/100g, stevioside from 2.0 to 7.7 mg/100g and rebaudioside A from 2.2 to 33.3 mg/100g. Most of the samples complied with the maximum limits currently established for HIS in Brazil, with some samples of confections exceeding these values.