Maple syrup includes pure maple syrup, which is made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple tree, and low-priced products made by adding cheap corn syrup. Because the main component of pure maple syrup is sucrose and low-priced products are primarily glucose, the difference between the two can be clarified by a qualitative analysis using FTIR. It is also possible to calculate the concentrations of the various sugars contained in products by a chemometric analysis.
| The Shimadzu IRTracer™-100 Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) was used. Measurements were carried out by the 10-bounce attenuated total reflectance (ATR) method using a horizontal ATR accessory (HATR). The maple syrup samples were diluted to 10 % w/w with water and dripped on the ATR prism (ZnSe) for measurement |
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Chemometric analysis enables quantitative analysis of multiple components contained in maple syrup and other food products, and FTIR measurement by the ATR method is extremely simple. Thus, a combination of these techniques is the ideal solution for quality control when qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis of the components of foods is necessary.