Determination of Low- and Non-caloric Sweeteners in Food and Beverages by HPAE-PAD

Artificial sweeteners are used as sugar substitutes in food and beverage products. The popularity of artificial sweeteners is increasing as more consumers are concerned about obesity and dental decay caused by consuming natural sugars. Artificial sweeteners are broadly classified into two categories: nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners. Recently, naturally occurring rare sugars have emerged as an alternative category of sweeteners. Allulose is one such low-calorie sweetener that occurs in small amounts in wheat and dried fruits, such as raisins and dried figs. Allulose’s chemical structure is similar to fructose, but it is not metabolized in the same way and contributes less calories. For labelling purposes, it is important to determine the amount of sweetener used in low-calorie foods and beverages. High-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD) is a well-established technique for carbohydrate determinations. In this work, we developed and validated an HPAE-PAD method to determine sucrose and three sugar substitutes (erythritol, allulose, and sucralose) in low calorie/ zero sugar/ sugar-free foods and beverages. These sugar substitutes are often used in combination in food and beverages to create the same level of sweetness as natural sugars and minimize less desired flavors of the sugar substitutes. The separation of these sweeteners was achieved on a Thermo Scientific™ Dionex™ CarboPac PA20 column. This column facilitates determination of the sugar substitutes in sugar-free samples with minimum sample preparation and an overall injection to injection time of 25 min. In this work, we analyzed five commercial sugar-free products: two sugar-free protein bars, a keto cookie baking mix, a sugar-free vitamin water, and a zero-sugar sports drink for their erythritol, allulose, and sucralose contents. The method showed good precision and accuracy with a recovery range of 83-116% for the samples tested.