Reducing sugar content of specific foods is controlled by European legislation.
A simple spectrophotometric method for reducing sugars was developed.
The reagent is the relatively non-hazardous cupric neocuproine in alkaline medium.
Cu(II)-Nc method is more sensitive and R2≈1 compared to dinitrosalicylate method.
Plant phenolics did not interfere after solid phase extraction in clean-up.