LC – MS Applications in Environmental and Food Analysis

Abstract

This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the main application fields of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry ( LC – MS ) technology, highlighting practical aspects, advantages, and shortcomings. The areas covered include environmental and food applications. Emphasis is placed on potentiality and pitfalls of the different LC – MS approaches to perform both confirmation analysis and large‐scale screening analysis of pesticides, drugs, and toxins using both low‐ and high‐resolution mass spectrometry. The key role of LC – MS in the emerging omics technologies (proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics) will also be discussed along with “global” or “targeted” strategies to identify a huge number of proteins or metabolites. Latest advances and potential trends using LC – MS are also outlined in the several branches of the analytical chemistry.