The Determination of Aspartame in Diet Soft Drinks by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A simple procedure for the qualitative and quantitative determination of aspartame (Nutrasweet) in diet soft drinks is described. A high performance liquid chromatography method is used which requires a 250 × 4.6 mm β-cyclodextrin bonded silica gel column and a mobile phase of methanol/1% triethyl ammonium acetate (pH 4.5). The effluent was monitored at 214 nm. The method was applied for the analysis of aspartame in diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet 7-Up and the sweetner Equal. Determination of sodium benzoate caramel coloring and caffeine is also possible by this procedure.