HPLC Analysis of Soft Drinks Using Alliance™ iS HPLC System

Soft drinks often contain a key ingredient, such as caffeine, and one or more additives, such as benzoate or sorbate (as preservatives), and/or acesulfame K, saccharin, or aspartame (as artificial sweeteners). Aspartame is prone to degradation once in solution. Its degradation products could interfere with the quantification of other additives.

In this study, an Alliance iS HPLC System was employed for the analysis of these additives. The method successfully resolved all additives and aspartame degradation products with a critical pair resolution of 2.3.

Furthermore, the method showed excellent linearity for the six additives across a broad range of injection volumes (0.2–20 μL) with a remarkable %RSD exceeding 0.9999 in six replicate injections. The instrument’s precision in delivering injection volumes was beneficial for accurately quantifying caffeine aspartame and benzoate in diverse soft drink samples.