This document specifies the quantitative liquid chromatographic determination of specific sugars (galactose, glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose and maltose) in various milk and milk products, applying arabinose as an internal standard.

The method is applicable to the following dairy matrices: milk, sweetened condensed milk, milk powder, cheese, whey powder, infant formula, milk dessert and yoghurt.

The method does not apply to dairy products containing soy or to the determination of the lactose content in low-lactose milk products at levels below 1 mg/g.

A high performance anion exchange chromatography method in combination with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) method is applied^[5][3][4]. With this method, thirteen different monosaccharides, disaccharides and trisaccharides can be separated: fucose, arabinose, galactose, glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, lactulose, maltose, melibiose, trehalose, isomaltulose and maltotriose.

The method is applicable to labelling for the six most important sugars that can be present by nature or by addition in milk and milk products. The method does not apply to sugar contents less than 0,1 %.