Evaporative light scattering mass detection for high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of sucrose polyester blends in cooking oils

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described to determine the sucrose polyester (SPE) content in seven blends of cooking oils. Four gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) columns were used in series with an evaporative light scattering mass detector to separate the SPE from the acylglycerols in the final chromatogram. The SPE fraction was collected off the GPC column and injected onto a reverse-phase C-18 column for quantitation with sucrose octaacetate as an internal standard and a gradient of nonaqueous solvents as mobile phase. The chromatograms were interference-free, with only two sharp peaks appearing. The standards were linear from 500 to 5000 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient of r=0.999. The mean percent recovery (n=9) and standard deviation were 102±6.7. The detector could detect amounts as low as 5 μg SPE.