Q&A: Monitoring Microcontaminants in Food

Michelle Colgrave of Edith Cowan University and Australia’s national science agency is the recipient of the 2024 Harvey W. Wiley Award.

Food contact materials contain low molecular weight additives and processing aids which can migrate into foods leading to trace levels of contamination. Food safety is ensured through regulations, comprising compositional controls and migration limits, which present a significant analytical challenge to the food industry to ensure compliance and demonstrate due diligence. Of the various analytical approaches, LC-MS/MS has proved to be an essential tool in monitoring migration of target compounds into foods, and more sophisticated approaches such as LC-high resolution MS (Orbitrap) are being increasingly used for untargeted analysis to monitor non-intentionally added substances. This podcast will provide an overview to this area, illustrated with various applications showing current approaches being employed.

Yelena Sapozhnikova from the United States Department of Agriculture spoke to The Column about her innovative research investigating PFAS in plastic food storage bags using targeted and non-targeted liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.

This article surveys the application of headspace-SIFT-MS to untargeted screening of food products and ingredients, such as beer, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and strawberry flavor mixes.

This article discusses the importance of TIMS as it enhances the sensitivity, specificity, and speed of metabolite measurement, which in turn accelerates the pace of metabolomics research.

At Analytica 2024, four industry experts discussed the latest developments in foodomics, presenting their latest research in the field.