Food analysis: A continuous challenge for miniaturized separation techniques

Abstract

One of the current trends of modern analytical chemistry is the miniaturization of the various tools daily used by a large number of researchers. Ultrafast separations, consumption of small amounts of both samples and reagents as well as a high sensitivity and automation are some of the most important goals desired to be achieved. For many years a large number of research laboratories and analytical instrument manufacturing companies have been investing their efforts in this field, which includes miniaturized extraction materials, sample pre‐treatment procedures and separation techniques. Among the separation techniques, capillary electromigration methods (which also include CEC), microchip and nano‐LC/capillary LC have received especial attention. Besides their well‐known advantages over other separation tools, the role of these miniaturized techniques in food analysis is still probably in an early stage. In fact, applications in this field carried out by CEC, microchip, nano‐LC and capillary LC are only a few when compared with other more established procedures such as conventional GC or HPLC. The scope of this review is to gather and discuss the different applications of such miniaturized techniques in this field. Concerning CE, microchip‐CE and CEC works, emphasis has been placed on articles published after January 2007.

Combining selection valve and mixing chamber for nanoflow gradient generation: Toward developing a liquid chromatography cartridge coupled with mass spectrometer for protein and peptide analysis

“…We have further coupled the micro HPLC with an ESI-MS for peptide and protein analysis. Portability is potentially a highly desirable feature for remote field and point-of-care applications [20,21]. At the time being, the repeatability of our micro HPLC is not as good as the Agilent 1200 system, but it will improve as a more rigid apparatus is developed.…”

Food Analysis: Present, Future, and Foodomics

“…Advances in sample preparation aim to minimize laboratory solvent use and hazardous waste production, save employee labor and time, and reduce the cost per sample, while improving the efficiency of the analyte isolation. This includes the development and application of molecularly imprinted polymers in food sample analysis [3], the use of monoliths in sample preparation and analysis of milk [4], the development of porous monolith microextraction techniques for determination of veterinary residues in food matrices by [5], the use of the so-called QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) methodology for determining pesticide residues in food matrices [6], the application of immunoaffinity column clean-up techniques in food analysis [7], the development of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) techniques for quality characterization of food products [8], the application of ultrasound-assisted extraction to the determination of contaminants in food and soil samples [9], and the use of liquid phase microextraction in food analysis [10]. Besides, some papers have focused on the description of sample preparation strategies used for the analysis of aflatoxins in food and feed [11], antibacterial residues in foodstuffs [12], or the determination of pesticides in foods [13].…”

“…Following with the description based on specific analytical techniques, separation techniques continue as one of the more active areas in food analysis. Separations based on liquid chromatography (LC) are the most numerous as can be deduced from the many works published on the use of different formats of LC [15,16], including hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) [17,18], nano-LC [10], or high-speed counter-current chromatography [19], just to name a few. Other techniques as gas chromatography (GC) still have an important role in food analysis, for instance, for the analysis of volatile fractions or fatty acids in foods [20].…”

Theory and Practice of UHPLC and UHPLC–MS

“…As a result, miniaturized separation techniques, employing chromatographic columns with reduced I.D. (so-called capillary columns), i.e., CLC/nano-LC, capillary electrochromatography (CEC), have begun to be recognized worldwide as a valid alternative to classical and analytical techniques, specifically HPLC and GC (Fu et al, 2003;Gübitz and Schmid, 2008;Asensio-Ramos et al, 2009). …”