Application of gas chromatography in food analysis

Gas chromatography (GC) is used widely in applications involving food analysis. Typical applications pertain to the quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of food composition, natural products, food additives, flavor and aroma components, a variety of transformation products, and contaminants, such as pesticides, fumigants, environmental pollutants, natural toxins, veterinary drugs, and packaging materials. The aim of this article is to give a brief overview of the many uses of GC in food analysis in comparison to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and to mention state-of-the-art GC techniques used in the major applications. Past and current trends are assessed, and anticipated future trends in GC for food applications are predicted. Among the several new techniques being developed, the authors believe that, in food analysis applications, fast-GC/mass spectrometry (MS) will have the most impact in the next decade. Three approaches to fast-GC/MS include low-pressure GC/MS, GC/ time-of-flight (TOF)-MS and GC/supersonic molecular beam (SMB)-MS, which are briefly discussed, and their features are compared. # 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.