Determination of Sorbitol Concentration in Diet Chocolate by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Sunčica Papeša¹*, Damir Ježek² and Diana Kujundžić<sup>1

1</sup>»KRAŠ« Food Industry, Department of Health Regulation and Control
²Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Article history:
Received February 7, 2000
Accepted March 23, 2001

Key words:
diet chocolate, sorbitol, HPLC

Summary:
Confectionery products are among the ever increasing group of healthy foodstuffs. In the diet chocolate mass used in this study the sucrose was replaced with sorbitol and sweetener aspartame. A new method for determination of sorbitol in diet chocolate by high-performance liquid chromatography was developed, using the method of external standard on an ion–exchanger sugar column (Bio-Rad; Aminex HPX 42C, 300
× 7.8 mm). The repeatability of the method was confirmed on the identical diet chocolate sample injected six times. The statistical analysis of retention time of sorbitol peak, sorbitol peak area, sorbitol peak height and sorbitol concentration in the sample included the following parameters: mean value (Δx), standard deviation (S.D.), relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) and confidence interval (C.I.). The results indicate that this technique enables exact determination of sorbitol content in diet chocolate, as well as other polyols in diet chocolates enabling new products development. 

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