Food and Beverage Analysis

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Direct injection for gas chromatographic profiling of alcoholic beverages is usually preferable, but where spirits and liquors contain appreciable amounts of non-volatile material, some mode of pre-treatment may be required to avoid both inlet and column contamination. This consideration applies in particular to products aged for extended periods in wooden barrels and especially products containing added sugar, as volatile artefacts from sugar decomposition in the hot injection port can also complicate the chromatogram.

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Hyphenated approaches to analysis have received much attention over the last three decades to the extent that techniques such as GC?MS, GC?FTIR and LC?MS have ? in the relevant fields ? become indispensable parts of the analyst?s arsenal. This concept has been extended to include multi-hyphenated techniques, where the chromatography is preceded by analyte extraction from a sample matrix. In the field of GC?MS, examples include thermal, sorptive or headspace extraction, with subsequent preconcentration, for instance, by thermal desorption (TD).

The two year international project "Preparation of active packaging with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity based on astaxanthin and chitosan",1 which started in 2009, was funded by FONCYCIT (Fund for International Cooperation of Science and Technology between the European Union and Mexico).

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The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) publishes the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), which is a compendium of food ingredient documentary standards (monographs) that provide tests, procedures, and acceptance criteria to indicate the safety and quality of a food ingredient. Physical reference standards can be associated with the procedures of an FCC monograph and the reference standards are needed for conducting the procedures. This article describes characterization and collaborative testing of new USP rebaudioside A and stevioside reference standards and their suitability for intended uses in the FCC rebaudioside A monograph.

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By identifying maturation tracers and molecules commonly responsible for taste defects, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) augments expert opinion with objective and quantitative information. When using a solid phase micro extraction (SPME) method, GC–MS requires very small sample sizes and a minimum of sample preparation while providing rapid analysis of target molecules. GC–MS can provide an automated technique with repeatable results for detecting all of these compounds.