Applications of HPLC to Food Analysis

A number of very good reviews on food analysis can be found in the literature [7-12]. Table 3 presents a very limited representation of the kind of work involved in a food laboratory. All basic constituents of foodstuffs - proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and vitamins - are amenable to liquid chromatography. Various types of columns and detectors used for those analysis demonstrate the versatility of the technique. Almost any type of food matrix can be extracted in order to identify and quantitate trace amounts of analytes. 

In order to familiarise the reader with the type of sample preparation required and the type of information provided by high performance liquid chromatography, an example depicting the analysis of organic acids in fruit juices follows. 

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A number of criteria could be apphed to organize this chapter, depending on the point of view by which foods are considered. In this chapter, application of HPLC to food analysis will be described considering homogeneous classes of food components lipids, carbohydrates and related substances, proteins, peptides, amino acids, biogenic amines, phenolics, vitamins, and some selected contaminants. 

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