Food and Beverage Analysis

A team of scientists from the University of Muenster and the University of Siegen in Germany has demonstrated the use of low temperature plasma desorption/ionization orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (LTP–Orbitrap–HR–MS) for the analysis of pesticide residues in fruit.

This article discusses the liquid chromatography instrumentation (columns, mobile phases, and detectors) that can be applied to determine different carbohydrates in human food and animal feeds.

A review of the analytical methods available to chromatographers for the determination of sources of off-flavours and food taints.

A novel system for fully automated comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography is presented.

Food provides the body with energy, and good food is indispensable for a healthy life. With a worldwide population of over seven billion people, it is clear that state-of-the art technology is needed to provide food of a sufficient high quality.

This study illustrates the successful combination of fast GC and tandem mass spectrometry to determine 360 pesticides spiked in a QuEChERS apple extract.

During the past year, LCGC examined current trends in the application of liquid chromatography (LC), and gas chromatography (GC), and related techniques in environmental, food, forensics, and pharmaceutical analysis. This article presents some developments made by separation scientists working in these application areas and offers insights into the current trends in each field.

Our interviews with separation science experts in specific application areas, such as environmental, food, forensics, and pharmaceutical analysis, have provided the LCGC audience with insights into what's going on in those fields. Here, we have excerpted several recent interviews that were published in our application-focused newsletters and our digital magazine, The Column.

Click here to view the complete E-Separation Solutions newsletter from July 29, 2014.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has confirmed that acrylamide in food can potentially increase the risk of developing cancer for consumers across all age groups.

A team of scientists from the University of Muenster and the University of Siegen in Germany has demonstrated the use of low temperature plasma desorption/ionization orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (LTP?Orbitrap?HR?MS) for the analysis of pesticide residues in fruit.

Scientists from Emory University (Georgia, USA) have developed a new solid–phase extraction (SPE) method to isolate four insecticide degradates from baby food for analysis by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS–MS). The paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry describes how the method can be applied to differentiate between exposure to insecticides or preformed degradates.

Agilent Technologies

Red wine could help to protect against oral cavities, according to research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.1 The team used ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry together with electrospray ionization (UHPLC–ESI–MS–MS) to analyze phenolic compounds found in the sampled red wine.

This application note demonstrates how comprehensive 2D-LC can be used to resolve the complex mixture of hydrophilic phenols found in virgin olive oil and investigates differences in the phenol composition of several olive oils.

Environmental and food analysis concerns have been a hot-button issue for several years. Scientists are continually working to improve the methods and equipment used for analysis in these fields, so this technical session will surely be of high interest to many. This session will start late Monday morning at 10:50 a.m. and will be chaired by Stephen Weber of the University of Pittsburgh.

The complexity of many food samples places a great demand in terms of both separation capabilities and specificity of detection. In this article, a novel system for fully automated comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC?LC) is discussed.

A team of scientists in Portugal and Spain have performed high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection (HPLC– FLD) to show that marinating pork meat in beer can reduce the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formed when grilled over charcoal.

Food for human consumption and animal feedstuffs contain a variety of mono-, di-, oligo-, and polysaccharides with different functions. In this article specific liquid chromatographic (LC) systems (column, mobile phase, and detector), which are used to determine different carbohydrates in food and feed matrices, are described.

Food provides the body with energy and good food is indispensable for a healthy life.

This article is focused on the detailed qualitative analysis of the fatty acids and the unsaponifiable constituents of a vegetable oil derived from a food-industry waste product, namely lemon seeds.

If food flavor is not as expected, it can damage consumer confidence and give the perception of poor quality. Setting analytical standards of what constitutes an acceptable flavor can be challenging, and while methods based on total volatiles or specific marker compounds can be a useful quality control check, a more investigative approach is often required.

Advances in nano-ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (nUHPLC) and "plug-and-play" micro-UHPLC (?UHPLC) for the detection of veterinary drugs and steroids in porcine meat and urine respectively are described.

Edible oils and fats are complex mixtures of compounds. To understand the properties of an oil or fat, information on groups of molecules, as well as individual molecules, is needed.

Dr Sastia Prama Putri of Osaka University, Japan, spoke to Kate Mosford of The Column about advances in metabolomics, the need for authentication of high value food products, and the important role of GC–MS in food analysis.