Browsing by Subject "E960"

Steviol glycosides are constituents of a natural sweetener E960. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in combination with UV or MS detection is the method of choice for the determination of steviol glycosides. The poor resolution between the two abundant steviol glycosides stevioside and rebaudioside A has been the main challenge in reported methods. The primary object of this study was to develop an HPLC-MS/MS-method for determination of the three most abundant steviol glycosides stevioside, rebaudioside A and rebaudioside C in foods. The purpose was also to validate the method for two different matrices, drinks and dairy products. The HPLC-MS/MS method allowed separation of six steviol glycosides. HILIC column showed great selectivity towards steviol glycosides, and a good resolution between stevioside and rebaudioside A was achieved. Sample preparation for drinks included SPE purification by C18 cartridge and for dairy products also fat removal and protein precipitation prior to SPE. In juice samples the HPLC-MS/MS method demonstrated good performance in terms of trueness, accuracy, repeatability, reproducibility and the LOQs for steviol glycosides were multifold smaller than the proposed use levels in foods. Conversely, trueness, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility in yoghurt samples did not indicate good performance. The developed HPLC-MS/MS-method can be applied for routine monitoring of sweetener E960 in foods. The method was successfully validated for drinks, but not for dairy products. The sample preparation of dairy products needs still modification before validation can be accomplished.