Studies on the Analysis of Food Additives by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (IV) Rapid Determination of Aspartame in Foods

A rapid and reproducible method for the determination of aspartame (AT) in foods by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was investigated. A food sample was extracted with water. Phosphate buffer, pH 4.0, and cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTA) were added to the water extract and the solution was passed through SEP-PAK C18 cartridge (Waters Associates). After washing the cartridge with water, AT was eluted with a mixture of methanol-0.027 M phosphate buffer pH 5.0 (1 : 3). The eluate was injected on a Li Chrosorb RP-8 column by using a mixture of methanol-0.025 M phosphate buffer, pH 5.0, (1 : 4) as a mobile phase. The effluent was monitored with a UV detector at a wavelength of 210 nm. The recoveries of AT from liquid foods, solid foods and fatty foods were 96.9-100.9%, 91.1-96.9% and 85.7-98.0%, respectively.