Recent Trends in the Analysis of Lipids, Carbohydrates, and Proteins in Food by Capillary Electrophoresis

Abstract

Highly selective and sensitive analytical methods are necessary for food analysis because diverse components can be found in this complex sample matrix, sometimes occurring at only trace levels. Besides, simple and cost-effective methods are needed to meet the requirements of governmental food standards organizations and industries. Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) is a technique that meets these requirements offering high-resolution separations and high-throughput. It only demands small amounts of samples and chemicals for experiments and its versatility due to the different separation modes possible and the combination with different detection systems, has favored its application to determine diverse compounds in food analysis. This chapter summarizes significant issues and challenges involved in the determination of lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins, as well as recent advances in the analysis of these food components by several CE modes and detection systems.