The corona-charged aerosol detector (C-CAD) was developed to improve the sensitivity, reproducibility and
quantification of the evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). In this article the performance of both detectors
for the detection and quantification of sugars in food samples is systematically compared. Fructose, glucose, sucrose,
maltose, lactose and maltotriose were separated by liquid chromatography on a NH2-column using an
isocratic composition acetonitrile:water, 70:30 (v/v) as mobile phase. The analytical signals for the individual
sugars were obtained using the C-CAD and ELSD detectors. The C-CAD was able to detect the target analytes in
more dilute samples as regards ELSD, which results in a better sensitivity. The intra-day and inter-day variations
were lower 3.2% and 3.9% for ELSD and 5.4% and 6.6% for C-CAD, respectively. The detection limits were between
10.2 mg L−1 and 17.4 mg L−1 for ELSD in the linear range 25–3000 mg L−1. The C-CAD provided LODs between
1.2 and 7.6 mg L−1within a narrower dynamic range (5–1000 mg L−1). The optimizedmethodswere applied to
the analysis of different sauces, confectionery products and dairy products samples. The sample pre-treatment is
very simple, only a dilution with Milli-Q water being necessary, except for the dairy products, which requires a
precipitation of proteins with acetic acid. The results obtained for both detectors were very similar, being the
selection of the most appropriate one based on the analytical quality level required for the determination.