Challenges and Trends of Mass Spectrometry for Food Analysis

Newly discovered contaminants, regulatory requirements, and the increasing consciousness of customers about food quality drive the development of food analysis methods. This chapter presents important classes of contaminants of emerging concern, such as microbial toxins, microplastics, and rare earth elements from high-technology waste. Ambient and direct ionization techniques enable in situ analyses and screening of many samples for suspicious cases that require detailed analyses. Untargeted studies with high-resolution instruments and combined methods aim toward the comprehensive understanding of complex mixtures. Data mining methods excavate important variables from such massive datasets and create predictive models for sample classification. Here, the application of various such new technologies in food analysis is demonstrated.