Abstract
This paper studies the possibility of quantification of sugar components in food by the use of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy coupled with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory. Four kinds of sugar (glucose, sucrose, fructose, lactose) were prepared as the main sugar components of food and their infrared spectra were obtained for different concentrations. The adsorption in the fingerprint region for each sugar plotted against the concentrations of the sugar solution showed excellent linearity in range of low concentration. Then model juice in which water and there sugars were mixed based on the reference values was prepared. The comparison between the spectrum of model juice and the simulated spectrum by the sum of these sugar spectra showed a good agreement. The same method by FT-IR/ATR was applied to the determination of sugar contents in fruit juice and lactic acid drink which were on the market. The comparison between calculated values of sugar concentrations and the values reported by manufacturers showed a relatively good agreement. It seemed that presented method was effective to analysis of food components, which needs rapidity and low accuracy.
