摘要
Disaccharides are a very important group of carbohydrates, being main components of many daily food products. The heating of these biomolecule causes the formation of caramel, an extremely complex material. The dominant fraction of non-volatile compounds, responsible for both color and flavor of food products, has been studied on a few occasions. Herein, the composition of caramels obtained by heating of sucrose, lactose and maltose were studied using combined mass spectrometry techniques. High resolution electrospray mass spectrometry was applied followed by targeted multi-stage LC-tandem mass spectrometry （ESI-MSn） and MALDI-MS. Novel graphical interpretation strategies such as van Krevelen and Kendrick mass analysis have been applied to study the composition of caramels. Products of caramel include oligomerization, depolymerization, hydration and dehydration products. Oligomers with up to eight carbohydrate units and dehydrated oligomers losing up to eight water molecules have been identified.
