Patent ID: 7049435

Claim:
A method for removing impurities from a starting composition including sucralose; first and second impurities, each of said first and second impurities comprising one or more related halogenated sucrose derivatives; and a first solvent; the method comprising the steps of: (a) extracting the starting composition with a second solvent at least partially immiscible with the first solvent to transfer the first impurities into said second solvent, thereby converting the starting composition to a partially purified composition comprising the sucralose, the second impurities, and the first solvent; (b) extracting the partially purified composition with a third solvent at least partially immiscible with the first solvent to transfer the sucralose into said third solvent while retaining the second impurities in said first solvent; and (c) recovering said sucralose from the third solvent via crystallizing said sucralose; wherein the first impurities comprise tetrachlorosucrose, and wherein in step (a) at least half of the tetrachlorosucrose is transferred to the second solvent while at least half of the sucralose is retained in the first solvent.