Andrea Hochegger is an assistant professor at Graz University of Technology, Austria, where she is leading the working group on food safety since 2024. Her research focus is on the characterization of complex mixtures in the fields of food and food packaging with special emphasis in combining analytical results to toxicological effects, such as genotoxicity in bioassays. In particular, her work concentrates on the investigation of contaminants, including mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH/MOAH), as well as non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) in plastic and paper recyclates.
To do so, she applies state-of-the-art sample preparation techniques (migration, extraction, headspace techniques) in combination with advanced chromatographic methods, especially gas chromatography (GC) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) coupled with mass spectrometric detection, as well as liquid chromatographic methods (LC-MS/MS).
Andrea Hochegger from Graz University of Technology, Austria describes the benefits that comprehensive two-dimensional GC (GC×GC–MS) offers over conventional GC–MS to resolve complex mixtures from recycled packaging materials. Andrea will present on this topic at Extech 2026, which will take place at the University of Liege, Gembloux, Belgium from July 6–9 2026.
