Phospho- and sphingolipid content of selected dairy products as determined by HPLC coupled to an evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC–ELSD)

Dairy phospho- and sphingolipids are gaining interest because of their nutritional and technological properties. As such, 31 commercial dairy products (milk, cream, condensed milk, butter, fermented products, cheeses and whey) were analyzed on their polar lipid (PL) content by high-performance liquid chromatography–evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC–ELSD) after extraction with chloroform/methanol. Values are given for different phospholipids (phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylcholine) and sphingolipids (sphingomyelin, glucosylceramide and lactosylceramide). The total amount of these PLs was considered as total PL content. PL values ranged from 3.6–479.5 mg/100 g product, 0.01–2.19% of the dry matter and <0.1–24.7% of the lipid fraction. These values were in accordance with the scarce values reported in literature. No significant correlation between the PL and fat content was found, so extrapolation of the PL content by measuring the lipid content may result in erroneous data.