Esters of fruit acids including acetic acid and mono- and diacylglycerols (MAG and DAG), also known as E 472 emulsifiers, are used in the food industry as food additives to adjust techno-functional properties like viscosity, emulsion stability and foaming stability in various products, mainly dairy products. Based on the respective acids, E 472 emulsifiers are classified in several categories with acetic acid esters (ACETEM, E 472a), lactic acid esters (LACTEM, E 472b), citric acid esters (CITREM, E 472c), and mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters (DATEM, E 472e) as the most prominent representatives. Besides fruit acid esters, E 472 emulsifiers mainly comprise MAG, DAG, triacylglycerols, free fatty acids, free fruit acids and free glycerol in different amounts. Here we present an innovative and sensitive method for the characterization of the composition of E 472 emulsifiers by high-performance thin-layer chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPTLC-FLD). For HPTLC-FLD, technical emulsifiers were simply dissolved and analyzed on HPTLC silica gel plates after a two-fold development and derivatization with primuline, enabling the easy characterization and direct visual comparison of the emulsifier pattern (fingerprint) through the fluorescent lipid components under UV 366 nm. Thus, the HPTLC-FLD fingerprint approach represents a simple tool for the comparison of different samples, batches and categories of E 472. Coupling of HPTLC to mass spectrometry moreover enabled the identification of constituents of interest.

中文翻译：

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E 472食品乳化剂的高效薄层色谱-荧光检测和质谱分析。

水果酸的酯，包括乙酸和单和二酰基甘油（MAG和DAG），也称为E 472乳化剂，在食品工业中用作食品添加剂，以调节技术功能特性，例如各种粘度，乳液稳定性和发泡稳定性产品，主要是乳制品。根据各自的酸，E 472乳化剂可分为乙酸酯（ACETEM，E 472a），乳酸酯（LACTEM，E 472b），柠檬酸酯（CITREM，E 472c）以及单和二乙酰酒石酸酯（DATEM，E 472e）为最突出的代表。除水果酸酯外，E 472乳化剂还主要包含MAG，DAG，三酰基甘油，游离脂肪酸，游离果酸和游离甘油的含量不同。在这里，我们介绍了一种新颖且灵敏的方法，用于通过高效薄层色谱和荧光检测（HPTLC-FLD）表征E 472乳化剂的组成。对于HPTLC-FLD，经过两次显影并用伯灵碱衍生化后，可以简单地将工业乳化剂溶解并在HPTLC硅胶板上进行分析，从而可以通过紫外线下的荧光脂质成分轻松表征和直接目视比较乳化剂的图案（指纹）。 366海里 因此，HPTLC-FLD指纹方法是比较E 472的不同样品，批次和类别的简单工具。此外，HPTLC与质谱的耦合还可以鉴定出感兴趣的成分。