Saponins were determined as oleanolic acid in refined sugar and sugar juices from beet sugar refining processes by differential‐pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry (DPCSV) at the hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) after acidic hydrolysis of the saponin. Measurements were performed on diluted samples at the mg/1 level without further pretreatment. The optimised procedure allowed the determination of saponin at the mg/kg level. The DPCSV method showed a precision and accuracy adequate for the determination of low levels of saponin in sugar and sugar juices. The perfonnance of the procedure is compared with the HPLC method currently in use in many sugar refineries.