Determination of Seven Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) in Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals: First Action 2022.07.

Background: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are important components of breast milk and may be responsible for some of the benefits of breastfeeding, including resistance to infections and the development of a healthy gut microbiota. Selected HMOs are now available for addition to infant formula, and suitable methods to control the dosing rate are needed.

Objective: To develop and validate a suitable method for the analysis of HMOs in infant formula.

Determination of β-Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) in Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals: Single-Laboratory Validation, First Action 2021.01.

Background: β-Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are typically used in infant formula and adult nutritionals as a source of nondigestible oligosaccharides, which may bring beneficial effects through modulation of the gut microbiota. However, suitable methods for the determination of GOS in products with a high background of lactose do not exist.

Objective: The aim of this work was to develop a method suitable for the determination of GOS in infant formula and adult nutritionals and demonstrate suitability through single laboratory validation.

Determination of Fructans in Infant Formula and Adult/Pediatric Nutritional Formula by Anion-Exchange Chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detection after Enzymatic Treatment: Collaborative Study, Final Action 2016.14.

Background: Fructans are added to infant formula and adult nutritionals for their prebiotic effect. A method (AOAC 2016.14) was developed for their analysis which has already demonstrated excellent performance during single laboratory validation.

Dual-Laboratory Validation of a Method for the Determination of Fructans in Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals: First Action 2016.14.

Until recently, only two AOAC Official MethodsSM have been available for the analysis of fructans: Method 997.08 and Method 999.03.

Lactose does not interfere with the analysis of sialic acids as their 1,2-diamino-4,5-methylenedioxybenzene derivatives.

In 2007, Martin et al. developed a method for the analysis of sialic acids by HPLC following 1,2-diamino-4,5-methylenedioxybenzene (DMB) derivatisation (Martín et al., Anal Bioanal Chem 387:2943-2949, 2007).

Determination of sialic acids in milks and milk-based products.

Sialic acids are becoming recognized as important components of milk-based products for infants and young children. As such, many companies now label the sialic acid content of their products. To control the labeling, suitable methods are required for this analysis.

Determination of the low molecular weight fraction of food-grade carrageenans.

Recently there has been some debate regarding the presence and associated health risk of low molecular weight carrageenan in foodstuffs. Unfortunately measurement of the low molecular weight tail (LMT) of food-grade carrageenans (defined here as the carrageenan having relative molecular mass (Mr) below 50,000) is not trivial, largely due to its low abundance. So far methods employing light scattering have been unsuccessful in producing reproducible results, probably due to the poor detector response at low masses.