Analysis of Lactose in ‘Lactose-free’ Labelled Products

Introduction

Lactose-intolerance is a wide-spread condition, which prevents a large number of people of consuming dairy products. To check the lactose contents in ‘lactose-free’ labelled products a fast, sensitive and selective analytical method is required. In this application note, the use of High Performance Anion Exchange Chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detection using Antec’s DECADE Elite detector is described, for fast and sensitive analysis of lactose and its isomers such as lallolactose, epilactose and lactulose. A variety of dairy products were analyzed to demonstrate the versatility of the method. Besides the quantification of low concentrations of lactose and its isomers also the major sugars in dairy products (galactose, glucose, sucrose and fructose) can be analyzed.