Palatinose has attracted interest recently as a saccharide not inducing dental carries. Polarized photometric detection (PPD) is feasible by incorporating two polarizers into a conventional photometric detector, thus enabling the determination of optically active compounds such as palatinose in combination with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A PPD system with a borate-form ligand-exchange column was highly specific for disaccharides. This specificity made the sample pretreatment easy. The extract from food was ultrafiltered through a Tosoh ULTRACENT-10 cartridge prior to HPLC injection. The lowest detection limit of palatinose was 0.03-mu-mol.