Separation and analysis of phospholipids in different foods with a light‐scattering detector

A method for the separation of phospholipids (PL) from total lipids by solid‐phase extraction (SPE) with reversephase C 8 cartridges is described. The method was validated with a standard mixture of PL and applied to natural food matrixes, such as egg, chicken meat, salami, and ripened cheese. The recovery of PL ranged between 93 and 99.7% and was evaluated by an organic phosphorus spectrophotometric determination. The egg powder PL fraction obtained by SPE contained about 20% (w/w) nonpolar PL material when 100–150 mg of lipids were loaded onto the cartridge. Higher percentages of nonphospholipid components (30–43%) were obtained when the amount of lipids loaded was below or above the 100–150 mg range. The purified PL fractions were analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with an evaporative light‐scattering detector. Good HPLC performance was observed even with low‐purity SPE fractions (43% nonphospholipid material).