A novel, rapid and robust HPLC-ELSD method for simultaneous determination of fructose, glucose and sucrose in various food samples: Method development and validation

The analysis of sugar compounds in food products requires rapid, accurate and cost-effective methods. For this purpose, a novel and robust high-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of fructose, glucose and sucrose. Chromatographic separations were carried out on a Phenomenex Luna NH2 (5 μm particle size, 250 mm x 4.6 mm id, 100 Å) column with isocratic elution with acetonitrile:water (78:22, v/v). Drift tube temperature was set at 40 °C and nitrogen pressure was regulated to 350 kPa with Gain:7 and Filter:10 on the ELSD system. Within the test ranges for all sugar compounds (40-2000 μg mL−1), the regression equation revealed a good linear relationship (R2 = 0.9980−0.9992) with low LOD and LOQ values in the range of 0.10−0.16 and 0.30−0.49 μg mL−1. The method was successfully applied to 36 food samples including honey, molasses, jams and fruits.