Mona Chin

Food carbohydrate content is routinely analyzed to ensure food quality and taste. Over the years many analytical techniques, including thin-layer chromatography (TLC), enzymatic analysis, and gas liquid chromatography (GLC), have been developed that allow qualitative and quantitative analysis of sugars, organic acids, and alcohol in food. Amongst these, ion‑moderated partitioning high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has emerged as a very valuable tool and has been used in thousands of published studies. This article describes the various considerations for selecting and optimizing the use of ion-moderated partitioning HPLC analytical columns for carbohydrate analysis in various types of food samples.