Advances in Food and Beverage Analysis

Trace-level pesticides and environmental pollutants in the food supply continue to be a worldwide concern. Here we present a fast-screening workflow for residual pesticides present on the surface of fruits using a GC–MS system with direct heating technology and MS spectral deconvolution.

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by fungal species often found in agricultural products. An accurate method for analyzing 12 regulated mycotoxins is described using UHPLC–MS/MS. The method demonstrated limits of quantitation (LOQs) for all analytes below stringent regulatory limits, making the method suitable for routine mycotoxin analysis.

Hydrolyzed collagens (collagen peptides) are water-soluble products obtained by hydrolysis of natural proteins and used for dietary supplements. A simple GPC/SEC method is described for molar mass determination of collagen peptides, allowing reliable molar mass determination using ultraviolet (UV) detection.

A fully automated quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) extraction and extract clean-up method is described for analysis of organophosphate pesticides in orange juice. This method uses GC–MS and LC–MS along with an industry standard robotic x,y,z-sampling system.