Binary Simple Sugar Profiling in Corn and Small Grain Flour Authentication Using GC/EI-qMS Approach

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for mixed flour bakery products in the world market, considering the health benefits of various cereal grains. The aim of this work was to develop a rapid approach for corn and small grain flour authentication. Simple sugars present in flour samples were extracted with 96 % ethanol solution, derivatized into corresponding trimethylsilyl oximes (TMSO), and analyzed on a GC/EI-qMS device. The presence of a specific simple sugar at a specific retention time was confirmed using mass spectrometer, thus providing a semi-qualitative approach. Binary matrices were developed based on the presence/absence of detected simple sugar compounds in the investigated cereal species, to minimize the influence of variability between investigated cultivars of the same species. By performing exploratory data analysis: hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal coordinate analysis (PCO), and principal component analysis (PCA), flour samples of corn species were strongly separated from every investigated species of small grains, using all three multivariate tools, thus enabling its authentication in a small grain/corn flour mixture.