The physicochemical profile of dulce de leche (DL) was determined by both routine analysis and others techniques (HPLC, GC-MS and ICP-OES). Seven Brazilian commercial brands were characterized for moisture content, protein, fat, ash, pH and titratable acidity, mineral content (sodium, potassium, calcium, and phosphorus) and instrumental analysis (carbohydrates content and volatile compounds). Protein, lipid, ash, moisture, lactic acid content and pH ranged respectively from 3.51 to 7.12; 3.56 to 6.99; 1.31 to 2.05; 17.49 to 29.67; 0.23 to 0.50; and 6.14 to 6.37 w/w (P < 0.05), with a significant variability in all parameters. Regards the mineral content, it is also reported difference between these parameters was observed for all samples, ranging from 0.12 to 0.16 g/100 g; 0.28 to 0.40 g/100 g; 0.19 to 0.36 g/100 g; 0.14 to 0.24 g/100 g for sodium, calcium, potassium and phosphorus, respectively (P < 0.05). In concordance, a great variation was observed for glucose content, which ranged from 0.09 to 0.75 g/100 g for all the samples, suggesting heterogeneity of the technological processing of DLs. 32 volatile compounds were identified belonging to 10 different chemical families of which only 2 were not present in all samples. In this sense, an increase of intrinsic quality of DL is related closely the standardization of operational parameters using during the manufacture.