Simultaneous determination of artificial sweeteners in possible counterfeited wines, using high performance liquid chromatography with DAD detection

Abstract

Increased use of food, beverages or drugs containing synthetic sweeteners presents a real danger to health, which is why the EU Member States had to establish a system of regular surveys to monitor sweetener consumption. In case of wine industry, according to law no. 244/2002, Romania prohibits the addition of synthetic sweeteners in wine in order to obtain sweet wine. The official method for detection of adulterated sweet wines with synthetic sweeteners is TLC-Thin Layer Chromatography. However, quantitative methods of analysis are needed to measure levels of sweeteners in different food matrices and high performance liquid chromatography has proved to be a powerful tool for quantitative analysis of compounds at traces levels. In this paper, a high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the simultaneous separation and determination of three of the most popular artificial sweeteners (acesulfame potassium, saccharine and aspartame) in a single injection was developed. The described method is rapid, accurate and highly sensitive. Detection limit were 4 mg/L for acesulfame K, 1 mg/L for saccharine and 9 mg/L for aspartame respectively. The precision of the method was about 2% and recovery ranged between 92.6% and 103.3%. There were analyzed commercial wine samples, in order to detect possible counterfeits-sweet and medium sweet wines. Therefore, of the 20 analyzed wine samples, only two samples consisting in wine sweet table, were counterfeited by adding saccharin.

Determination of sweeteners in wine by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/MS)

“…Therefore, it is evident that the use of sweeteners, and in particular high intensity sweeteners, is strictly forbidden for this commodity. Despite the use of sweeteners in wine being totally prohibited, they are often used to produce counterfeit wines (Geana et al, 2012). Besides Geana et al (2012), Zou et al (2018) reported one out of 10 wines detected with sodium cyclamate (0.28 mg/L) and neotane (0.36 mg/L), and Li et al (2020) reported five wines detected with sweeteners.…”

“…Despite the use of sweeteners in wine being totally prohibited, they are often used to produce counterfeit wines (Geana et al, 2012). Besides Geana et al (2012), Zou et al (2018) reported one out of 10 wines detected with sodium cyclamate (0.28 mg/L) and neotane (0.36 mg/L), and Li et al (2020) reported five wines detected with sweeteners. Unlike the beverages in which sweetener addition is permitted and regulated, bearing in mind that wines may not contain any sweeteners, even at trace concentrations, a method to detect and quantify these compounds at extremely lower levels is necessary.…”

“…Therefore, cumbersome sample treatment should be avoided and a fast method should be favoured. Nevertheless, one should not compromise low limit of detection and set the target well below the sensory threshold of the considered sweeteners as referred to in the literature (Nelson, 2000;Geana et al, 2012;Shankar et al, 2013;Carocho et al, 2017;Shah and Jager, 2017;U.S. FDA, 2018).…”