Carlo Bicchi

In this extended special feature to celebrate the 35th anniversary edition of LCGC Europe, key opinion leaders from the separation science community explore contemporary trends in separation science and identify possible future developments.

Food quality differences are dependent on botanical and geographical origins of primary food ingredients as well as storage and handling. Quality assessment for food materials, including cocoa and olive oil, is demonstrated by applying two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) and pattern recognition.

Chemical fingerprinting can provide evidence for quality differences resulting from botanical and geographical origins of primary food ingredients, post-harvest practices, production processes (such as traditional versus industrial processes), and the shelf-life evolution of finished products. This article discusses the strategic role and potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) and pattern recognition using template matching for data processing to unravel the quality traits of high-quality food products. Practical examples dealing with high-quality cocoa and extra-virgin olive oil are described.

Chemical fingerprinting can provide evidence for quality differences resulting from botanical and geographical origins of primary food ingredients, post-harvest practices, production processes (such as traditional versus industrial processes), and the shelf-life evolution of finished products. This article discusses the strategic role and potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) and pattern recognition using template matching for data processing to unravel the quality traits of high-quality food products. Practical examples dealing with high-quality cocoa and extra-virgin olive oil are described.

A simple, automated, and fast method to quantify complex odorants in foods is described using stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) combined with fast enantioselective GC–MS analysis. The total analytical method takes only 30 minutes and does not require any sample pretreatment.

The guest columnists review SBSE and HSSE and examine their advantages and limitations, along with providing approaches to overcoming the latter.