Determination of 14 sweeteners in liquid foods by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A method for the simultaneous determination of six artificial sweeteners and eight steviol glycosides in liquid food samples by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry ( HILIC-MS/MS) was developed. The sweeteners in the samples were separated by a Waters Xbridge Amide column (150 mmx5. 0 mm, 3.5 mu m) at 35 degrees C, and eluted with acetonitrile-10 mmol/L ammonium formate ( 65 :35, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Then, the analytes were detected using an electrospray ion source in negative mode (ESI-) under multiple reaction monitoring ( MRM) mode. Good linear relationships were obtained, and the correlation coefficients (r(2)) of the 14 sweeteners were greater than 0.995. The limits of detection ( LODs, S/N = 3) and the limits of quantification ( LOQs, S/N = 10) ranged from 0.03 to 0.7 mg/kg and 0. 1 to 2. 2 mg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries varied from 80.8% to 108.7% at spiked levels of 2, 5 and 20 mg/kg, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranged from 1.5% to 7.7% (n=6). The proposed method is simple, accurate and sensitive for the simultaneous determination of the 14 sweeteners in liquid food samples.