Determination of Fructans in Infant, Adult, and Pediatric Nutritional Formulas: Single-Laboratory Validation, First Action 2016.06

A method for fructan analysis designed to comply with AOAC Standard Method Performance Requirements (SMPR (R)) 2014.002 is described. It is closely related to existing methods for fructan analysis, including AOAC 997.08 and 999.03, as well as a method previously published by Cuany et al. This new method achieves LOQ of 0.03% fructan on a ready-to-feed (RTF) basis with mean recoveries ranging from 93 to 108% in the presence of up to 9% sucrose (even at the 0.03% level of fructan). Repeatability ranged from 1.09 to 3.67%. Intermediate precision ranged from 2.46 to 6.79%. Sample preparation for quantitative analysis is simplified compared to some of the existing methodologies. The method incorporates a qualitative profile analysis to determine fructan size category. This allows assignment of appropriate correction factors without independent knowledge of fructan type.