Rapid, routine method for the analysis of the non-nutritive sweeteners in foodstuffs

Abstract

An extractive spectrophotometric technique was applied for the determination of three non-nutritive sweeteners, viz., saccharin, acesulfame and cyclamate using an oxazine dye, Sevron Blue 5G, as the reagent. The method of determination is based on the measurement of the absorbance of the chloroform extract of the ion-association complex formed between the sweetener and the dye at pH 7.0, which exhibits an absorption maximum at 655 nm. The method was simple, sensitive, reproducible and had an accuracy of ±1%. The method was applied for the estimation of the amount of non-nutritive sweeteners in foodstuffs such as beverages, ice creams, syrups and the confectionary, supari.