Application Handbook Food, Beverages, Agriculture - Release 2

Significance of the Topic

Ensuring the safety, quality and compliance of food, beverages and agricultural products is vital for public health. Rapid population growth and increasingly complex global supply chains require robust analytical methods to detect contaminants (e.g. pesticides, mycotoxins, veterinary drugs) as well as to verify nutritional ingredients and material properties.

Objectives and Overview

This collection of application notes illustrates advanced analytical approaches developed by Shimadzu for the food, beverages and agriculture industries. It covers key targets such as volatile and semi-volatile components, pesticides, mycotoxins, veterinary drugs, amino acids, sugars, toxins, nutraceuticals and packaging-related contaminants.

Methodology and Instrumentation

Analytical platforms include:

• Gas chromatography (GC, GCxGC) coupled with flame ionization detectors or mass spectrometry (GC–MS, GC–MS/MS)
• Liquid chromatography (HPLC, UHPLC) with spectroscopic (UV–Vis, PDA), refractive index or mass spectrometric detection (LC–MS, LC–MS/MS)
• Supercritical fluid extraction and chromatography (SFE-SFC, SFE-SFC-MS) for rapid removal of lipids and high-throughput screening
• Post-column derivatization and ligand-exchange columns for analysis of amino acids and carbohydrates
• Triple quadrupole and ion-trap time-of-flight MS for high-sensitivity quantitation and full-scan screening

Key sample preparation techniques include QuEChERS for pesticide and drug residues, solid-phase extraction for packaging contaminants and simple dilution/filtration protocols for rapid screening.

Main Results and Discussion

• GC–MS/MS methods achieve limits of quantitation at low parts-per-billion for over 360 pesticides in beverages within 45 minutes.
• GC×GC–MS/FID enables separation and identification of mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH/MOAH) in food packaging extracts, revealing migration profiles.
• UHPLC–MS/MS with post-column chloroform addition provides quantitation of 12 sugars and sugar alcohols in juices with sub-mg/L sensitivity.
• LC–MS/MS with mix-mode columns detects 20 amino acids in beverages and foodstuffs without derivatization with excellent linearity and precision.
• LC–MS/MS analysis quantifies 89 veterinary drugs in meat and seafood extracts following simplified QuEChERS extraction.
• Rapid UHPLC–MS/MS with fast polarity switching measures 45 mycotoxins in baby foods at sub-µg/L levels in 11 minutes.
• GC–MS/MS with scan/MRM mode and database screening identifies regulated pesticides and industrial dyes in various foods in a single run.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• High throughput and automation reduce labor, solvent use and turnaround times in QA/QC and regulatory testing laboratories.
• Broad dynamic range and multi-residue capability minimize method development and equipment needs.
• High selectivity of MS/MS and comprehensive 2D chromatography enhance confidence in trace-level analyses.

Future Trends and Opportunities

• Integration of comprehensive two-dimensional separations (LC×LC, GC×GC) with high-resolution MS for deeper insights into complex matrices.
• Adoption of supercritical fluid chromatography and extraction for greener, faster workflows.
• Increased use of data-driven workflows and database-guided screening to maximize automation and reduce false positives.
• Development of multi-platform solution packages to address emerging contaminants, nutraceuticals and packaging interactions.

Conclusion

The methods presented demonstrate how modern chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques can deliver unparalleled sensitivity, selectivity and throughput for the analysis of a wide variety of targets in food, beverage and agricultural samples. These platforms support compliance, product development and process optimization across the industry.