Abstract:

A method for the determination of alditols in foods by ion chromatography-mass spectrometry (IC-MS) has been developed. The samples were extracted and cleaned up with the solid phase extraction (SPE). Then, the ion chromatographic separation was performed on a CarboPar MA1 column. The alditols were determined by MS with the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode and quantified by the external standard method. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the certain ranges with the correlation coefficients (R²) greater than 0.99. The limits of quantification (S/N=10) of erythritol, xylitol, D-sorbitol, D-mannitol, lactitol, maltitol were 0.98, 1.99, 2.24, 5.92, 13.56, 13.21 mg/kg and the limits of detection (S/N=3) were 0.28, 0.59, 0.71, 1.74, 4.14, 4.03 mg/kg, respectively. The spiked recoveries of the alditols in the foods at different levels were in the range of 82.5%-108.0% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.5%-7.6%. The sensitivity, accuracy and precision of the method meet the technical standards of the determination. The method can be applied to the determination of alditols in foods.

Key words: alditol, food, ion chromatography-mass spectrometry (IC-MS)