Lactose is a principal component of the milk obtained from the mammals. Milk also contains several other sugars such as monosaccharides and oligosaccharides in low concentrations. Lactose has reactive functional groups and can be converted to valuable food-grade derivatives for commercial applications through chemical and/or enzymatic reactions. Physical and chemical properties of carbohydrates determine the methods that can be used for their fractionation and purification. In this chapter, the advanced extraction techniques for fractionation and analytical methodologies applied for the determination of different carbohydrates of milk (lactose, lactulose, and oligosaccharides) are summarized. The main aim of this contribution is to provide the reader with a broad view on the recent fractionation and analytical techniques employed for the analysis of carbohydrates in dairy foods and their applications in food and pharmaceutical industry.
Part of the book: Technological Approaches for Novel Applications in Dairy Processing