High-Pressure Capillary IC for Food and Beverage Analysis

Carbonated beverages and fruit juices are complex matrices containing organic acids, inorganic anions, and inorganic cations present as additives, as part of their natural sources, or as indicators of spoilage from biological growth. The determinations of these analytes are important to the beverage industry to verify content needed for labeling and formulations, to assess product freshness, protect health-sensitive consumers, or identify adulteration of a higher cost with a lower cost product. As such, ion chromatography is analytical method of choice to determine both inorganic anions and organic acids in a single run.

The high-pressure capabilities, which allow continuous system pressures up to 5000 psi, bring the advantages of 2x faster runs and reduced cycle time. These high-pressure capabilities also make it possible to use the new smaller 4µm particle Thermo Scientific Dionex IonPac columns for very high resolutions and separations needed in complex sample matrices. Here we discuss the advantages of high pressure capillary IC to provide highly resolved peak separations and determine important analytes in beverages.