mass spectrometry in food analysis: principles and applications

Food manufacturers, researchers and society in general are becoming very interested in the quality, integrity and safety of food products. Within this context, and considering the complexity of the food chain in a globalized world where many players are involved between the production and consumption of a food product, together with the possible ways of food contamination such as environmental, agrochemical and food manipulation (packaging) sources, fast and reliable analytical methodologies to guarantee food quality, integrity and safety are required.Mass spectrometry therefore plays a relevant role in this field to satisfy the demands of sensitivity and selectivity for the analysis of complex food samples. In this book, new advances in mass spectrometry techniques in food analysis, involving their hyphenation with chromatographic and related separation techniques, as well as relevant applications reporting the determination of polyphenols, pesticides, mycotoxins, lipids, and peptides among other compounds, will be addressed.