Determination of inulin in meat products by high-performance liquid chromatography with refractive index detection

Inulin is a naturally occurring carbohydrate with beneficial nutritional an d technological properties. A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC ) method was developed for the quantitative determination of these beta-fru ctans in meat products, containing this type of additive. The method includ es extraction of inulin with hot water, followed by hydrolysis with inulina se enzyme, and determination of the released fructose by HPLC with refracti ve index detection. An internal standard of rhamnose was used to quantify f ructose. The method incorporates a sample blank (without inulinase hydrolys is) for each specimen to subtract contributions of free fructose and fructo se from sucrose. The results showed good precision with average RSDs of 2.4 % for repeatability and 5.2% for reproducibility. Analytical recovery range d from 102 to 106%. Satisfactory linearity (r=0.999) was obtained. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.