21 June 2019

SepSolve Analytical equipment used in food chemical fingerprinting study

A new article on the comprehensive fingerprinting of volatiles in food – “Capturing the Signature of Quality” – has recently been published in the May edition of LCGC Europe magazine.

The article, authored by Prof. Chiara Cordero from the University of Turin, Italy, et al. focuses on the potential of 2D GC (GC×GC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) and pattern recognition using template matching for data processing to unravel the quality traits of high-quality food products.

In the paper, the authors use SepSolve Analytical’s BenchTOF-Select time-of-flight mass spectrometer with Tandem Ionisation to acquire data from both high-quality cocoa and extra-virgin olive oil. They discuss the usefulness of the complementary data produced from Tandem Ionisation, in terms of both spectral information/fragmentation pattern dissimilarity and absolute response to improve confidence in identification and extend dynamic range.

Key points from the paper are:

• Comprehensive chemical fingerprinting by GC×GC–TOF-MS can substantiate food quality.
• GC×GC–TOF-MS and advanced pattern recognition algorithms effectively exploit the chemical dimensions of food volatiles.
• Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography applied to volatiles enables access to higher levels of information on food quality.
• GC×GC–TOF-MS unravels the chemical quality traits of high-quality food products.

Download "Capturing the Signature of Quality" here.

Learn more about BenchTOF and Tandem Ionisation here.