Rapid monitoring of mono- and disaccharides in drinks, foodstuffs and foodstuff additives by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) procedure with contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) has been developed for monitoring of neutral mono- and disaccharides in drinks and foodstuffs. The separation of a mixture of seven neutral saccharides (glucose, fructose, galactose, mannose, ribose, sucrose and lactose) employed a quartz capillary, 5 mu m i.d., with an effective length of 18.3 cm, and 75 mM NaOH (pH 12.8) as the background electrolyte (BGE). The limit of detection (LOD) values obtained lied within a range from 0.4 mu mol L(-1) for lactose to 0.9 mu mol L(-1) for ribose, with a separation time shorter than 140s. The procedure was successfully applied to determinations of saccharides in fruit juices, Coca-Cola, milk. red and white wines, yoghurts, honey and a foodstuff additive. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.