Lukas Vaclavik

This method for PFAS analysis in milk and infant formula is robust, reliable, and reproducible, with scope to expand the list of PFAS in the future.

This method for PFAS analysis in milk and infant formula is robust, reliable, and reproducible, with scope to expand the list of PFAS in the future.

Mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites of several fungal species, represent food safety issues of high concern. Deoxynivalenol, the most abundant trichothecene mycotoxin, can be found worldwide as a contaminant of wheat, barley, maize and other cereals (1,2). The transmission of deoxynivalenol from barley into beer has been reported in several studies (3,4). Therefore, its levels should be controlled.

The potential of the time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) to innovate the analysis of soft drinks is described using gas chromatography (GC) hyphenated to TOF-MS and a new type of ion source, direct analysis in real time (DART), coupled to high-resolution TOF-MS. Head-space solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used to isolate/extract volatile compounds followed by GC–TOF-MS to identify tainted compound in contaminated soft drinks. Direct analysis in real time–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART–TOF-MS) was also used to obtain negative and positive ion profiles of different soft drinks to determine the presence of various compounds, including antimicrobial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, acidulants and saccharides, without any sample preparation and chromatographic separation.