Analyzing volatile organic chemicals in food: Emerging trends and recent examples

The magazine American Laboratory has just published an article describing some of the latest advances in the monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in food. The article, by David Barden, uses a variety of examples to highlight some of the trends that are developing in this increasingly important field of study.

Detecting VOCs in foods has long been a particularly tricky challenge for the analyst. However, technological developments are now addressing some key issues in this area, and the article examines this by looking at a number of published studies. These include the identification of compounds contributing to the aromas of roasted pistachios, butter oil and cheese, the detection of off-flavour compounds from oatcakes and orange juice, and pinpointing the numerous sulfur compounds in the aroma of beef.

Trends illustrated include eliminating complex sample preparation (for example, by using headspace–SPME), speeding up analysis by automation of thermal desorption (TD)–GC, expanding analytical scope using methods such as GCxGC/TOF MS, and improving data analysis by use of data-mining algorithms.

The article can be found on this link: Analyzing volatile organic chemicals in food: Emerging trends and recent examples